Last week we received a tip that JBI, Inc., a Niagara Falls company that boasts of a new proprietary technology that allows them to burn scrap plastic and convert it to diesel and other liquid fuels at remarkably low prices, suffered a mishap at their Iroquois Street plant.
The source of the tip wrote that JBI “just blew a stack, spewing oil and all of the accumulated shit the scrubbers had removed onto the surrounded area.”
Here’s a statement we received from the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation:
"At about 8 a.m. on December 2, 2013, an overpressure situation occurred in one of the facility’s reactors, causing an emergency release rupture disk to blow. Plant personnel notified New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) that morning and followed up with a written incident report. According to their report, the system was immediately shut down and purged with nitrogen. Emissions consisting of vapors and carbon black were released for approximately 90 seconds. In addition, an individual called the spills hotline to report observations on the incident the same day. The incident is still under investigation by DEC."
A DEC spokesperson directed our requests for the two reports to which the statement refers through the Freedom of Information Law process.
In the meantime, and totally coincidentally, we learned that JBI recently purchased a piece of property on the Buffalo River, on Ganson Street, from St. Mary’s Cement, where JBI intends to store and process the plastics it burns to make diesel in its Niagara Falls plant.
In January 2012 the Securities and Exchange Commission brought suit against JBI, company founder John Bordynuik, and CFO Ronald Baldwin Jr., accusing them of fraudulently overstating company assets “and, hence, of the company itself by almost 1,000 percent,” in service of two efforts to raise capital from investors. In June of this year, JBI and Bordynuik settled, paying $150,000 and $110,000 in fines, respectively. Baldwin settled in October, paying a $25,000 fine.
In August, JBI and Crayola announced a new program in which elementary and secondary schools will collect used markers to be shipped to the Niagara Falls plant to be burnt for fuel.
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