SC battery recycling plant broke environmental laws for years. Then it shut down.

Hundreds of people arrived on the grounds of a battery recycling plant near Florence on a fall day 10 years ago, eager to celebrate the official opening of a business they hoped would bolster the local economy.

Johnson Controls Inc., a national corporation touted for its commitment to environmental protection, was investing $150 million and hiring 250 workers at the new South Carolina plant as it sought its place as a respected member of the local business community.

But not long after Johnson Controls cranked up operations, it ran into trouble for breaking environmental laws that are supposed to protect the public from hazardous materials.

By 2021, the car battery recycling plant announced plans to shut down, and today, soil at the former factory property is believed to be polluted with elevated levels of lead, a toxic metal widely known for causing health problems.

In the less than 10 years of operating the plant, Johnson Controls Inc. and another company were fined at least nine times for breaking environmental laws. The fines totaled more than $375,000.

Public records show that the Johnson Controls factory failed to manage toxic materials properly, allowing contaminated dust to coat equipment and flooring, and some pollution to get outside of containment areas.

In some instances, pollution controls and cleaning equipment didn’t work properly. In others, state regulators found holes in walls that made it easy for toxic material to leak. In one instance, an environmental manager didn’t have the training to do the job.

The Johnson Controls site, which later became part of the Clarios Co., is now under scrutiny from the S.C. Department of Health and Environmental Control and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.

“There is evidence of elevated levels of lead in the soil,’’ a DHEC spokeswoman said in an email to The State.

DHEC’s email said the plant’s owners are responsible for putting together a plan to “evaluate the nature and extent of releases of hazardous waste.’’ A cleanup by the company would follow the studies to make sure the company will “protect people’s health and the environment,’’ according to DHEC.

The full breadth of the plant’s impact on the environment isn’t yet known, but DHEC has noted concern about lead in the Great Pee Dee River downstream from the Johnson Controls/Clarios site.

In a 2018 report, the agency listed a river sampling station as being part of a “waterbody of concern’’ for lead. Follow-up tests have not found lead problems caused by the plant, DHEC says, but the agency is continuing to monitor the Great Pee Dee River.

A spokesperson for Johnson Controls declined comment, saying the company division that formerly ran the battery recycling plant is now part of the Clarios Co. Brookfield Business Partners bought Johnson Controls Power Solutions division in 2019, which launched the start of Clarios, the Clarios website says.

Johnson Controls, which has been in business for more than 100 years, today makes heating and air conditioning systems, as well as security systems for large buildings. It has a good reputation in many circles, but the company also has had its share of struggles, including problems in South Carolina.

At about the same time the company was moving to open the Florence recycling center, Johnson Controls ran afoul of the University of South Carolina over a biomass plant on the Columbia campus. The plant the company was building for USC had a series of problems that prevented it from being used as expected.

Clarios did not provide a comment on environmental problems at the Florence County recycling site, but critics of the company’s operation in South Carolina said the troubles in Florence County are a sad but familiar story.

Familiar story

Environmentalists say the state has been saddled through the years with the legacy of abandoned industrial and waste sites, including toxic trash dumps and medical garbage incinerators, that once were seen as important to the economy. Sometimes, problems at such sites have cost taxpayers millions of dollars for monitoring and cleanup work.

Among the sites that have had problems are recycling centers.

Those include Gaston Copper Recycling, a smelting plant near Columbia that left a legacy of pollution in the 1990s; the Viva tire recycling facility, which had to be cleaned up after massive amounts of tires were found accumulated there about three years ago; and the Able recycling site, which in recent years left mounds of trashy material on fire and smoldering in the Beaufort area.

In addition, a company from Texas, RSR, attempted in the early 1990s to locate a lead battery recycling plant in Aiken County, but dropped those plans after reports surfaced about its environmental violations in other states.

Now, even as the state rejoices at landing a $3.5 billion battery recycling and production plant in Berkeley County, the Johnson Controls story underscores the need to run recycling plants carefully, environmentalists say.

“You want to recycle, no doubt,’’ Columbia environmental attorney Bob Guild said. “In the Johnson Controls case, they came with a great reputation, but they really, really dropped the ball.’’

Nancy Cave, a former official with the S.C. Coastal Conservation League, said her organization raised concerns about bringing Johnson Controls to South Carolina, but was told by company officials that the facility would operate to the highest standards.

The league, after taking legal action to stop the plant from opening, eventually worked out an agreement with Johnson Controls that led to the company providing more monitoring data.

Cave said the company’s failure to protect the environment validates her initial fears.

“This doesn’t surprise me,’’ Cave said. “The whole thing was a bad idea. Recycling of batteries is an incredibly toxic activity. The people who worked there had to get into special outfits to go in and work, and then they had to come out and shower, before they could even go home because what they were doing was so toxic.’’

Lead, one of the main materials employees worked with at the Florence factory, is widely known as a toxin that can cause multiple health problems. It can affect almost every organ in a person’s body, and is particularly dangerous to children who consume or inhale it, according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. Those issues include lower IQ, behavioral problems and anemia, the EPA says. In adults, lead exposure can result in high blood pressure, decreased kidney function and reproductive problems.

Guild said Johnson Controls’ environmental difficulties don’t mean the same thing will happen with the Redwood Materials recycling facility, to open in Berkeley County in 2023. But the new facility is worth watching, he said.

The plant, hailed by Gov. Henry McMaster and others, will provide recycled materials that could supply up to 1 million electric cars annually amid efforts to reduce dependence on oil and gas.

Redwood’s operation, however, is different from the one used by Johnson Controls. Redwood will work with lithium ion batteries., which contain nickel, cobalt, copper and manganese — but not lead, according to Redwood. The company said it has state-of-the-art controls to follow environmental standards. The company also has received acclaim for the work it is doing. Redwood has recycling partnerships with automobile manufacturers, such as Ford Motor, Toyota, Volkswagen and Volvo, according to The New York Times.

“I’m glad they are playing a role in trying to find a sustainable way of producing components for a clean energy future,’’ Guild said. “But that should not blind us to being concerned that the process needs to be managed carefully.’’

Expectations turn sour

Johnson Controls once had plenty of supporters in South Carolina. Many thought highly of putting a recycling facility in Florence County, which is in an area of the state with substantial poverty about an hour’s drive east of Columbia.

Those included then-Florence Mayor Stephen Wukela; then-state Sen. Hugh Leatherman, one of the state’s most powerful lawmakers who died in 2021; and Francis Marion University President Fred Carter, a widely respected former state government official.

“The steps taken by Johnson Controls to maximize economic impact and minimize environmental effects on our area are commendable and extremely important to our citizens,” Leatherman said at the time.

The plant, which Johnson Controls said would use state-of-the-art systems, was designed to break up spent lead-acid batteries from cars and trucks, separate the components and make products from those components, according to a hazardous waste permit application the company submitted in 2010.

Products that were to be made included lead ingots for new lead-acid batteries, as well as polypropylene for new battery casings, a DHEC fact sheet shows.

The recycling factory was at one point receiving 595 tons of automotive and marine batteries every day for processing, as well as other lead-bearing material, a 2017 DHEC enforcement order says.

“Through the process of developing the new center, the company’s leadership has established a strong sense of collaboration and cooperation,’’ Francis Marion’s Carter was quoted as saying. “We’re delighted to welcome our new neighbors.”

But Clarios, in a 2021 news release, said it could not keep the plant operating. It did not mention environmental troubles as a reason for the shutdown, but the news release said the closure was part of an effort to streamline U.S. operations.

“The decision to permanently close a plant is not one we made lightly, but we are confident that it is necessary to strengthen our position as a global leader in advanced battery technologies,’’ a company statement said.

In a recent statement, Clarios offered further information about its decision to close the plant.

“Clarios assumed control of the facility as part of a carve out from Johnson Controls and made a business decision to responsibly cease operations in late March 2021,’’ the statement said. “We also worked to support our employees as they transitioned to other opportunities in the community.

Holes and leaks

According to DHEC enforcement orders, the Johnson Controls factory ran into trouble within two years of the plant’s opening.

In 2014, department officials said they found corrosive liquid on the floor of the plant, batteries left in places they should not have been, and waste dust that had leaked onto the plant’s concrete floor. The company had not cleaned up the mess and DHEC hit Johnson Control’s with a $7,700 fine, a state enforcement order says.

A year later, DHEC smacked Johnson Controls with two separate enforcement orders for hazardous waste and air violations.

The first, which resulted in a $15,000 fine, followed the discovery of piles of poorly contained hazardous slag, as well as holes in perimeter walls and damage to floors that could allow toxic waste to escape.

Agency inspectors also found that employees had been tracking hazardous waste from the plant warehouse into the surrounding environment.

DHEC cited the most problems in an enforcement action later in 2015 that resulted in a $250,000 fine against Johnson Controls, the largest penalty levied that year for air pollution violations.

Inspectors found piles of slag and dust on a loading dock, broken cleaning equipment and a malfunctioning pollution control device. In follow-up inspections, DHEC officials also found holes in walls, lead-bearing material in pools of water and a suspect alarm system, The State reported in a 2016 story.

The agency also could not find proof that systems to control lead-contamination were working as proposed by Johnson Controls. An air pressure system, which was supposed to prevent lead from leaking out of the plant, raised concerns about its effectiveness. The agency also said it found lead dust coating parts of the facility.

Johnson Controls’ battles with DHEC didn’t stop there. DHEC inspectors fined the company at least five more times before the division of Johnson Controls that ran the plant became Clarios, records show.

In 2017, DHEC said it discovered “potentially lead-bearing material’’ on heavy equipment used by the plant and on paved areas where it should not have been. The $7,500 fine was levied after DHEC said the company failed to control dust.

The agency later found excessive sulfur levels at the plant and determined Johnson Controls had hired a person to manage environmental issues who had not received hazardous waste training.

Not only that, but inspectors cited the company for failing to operate the facility in a way that would minimize chances of a fire or explosion. In 2021, new plant operator Clarios was fined $6,600 for several hazardous waste violations, including improper storage of hazardous waste.

While those problems were discovered over several years, the issue today is making sure any pollution on the site is identified and contained.

Johnson Controls’ problems have caused DHEC and U.S. Environmental Protection Agency contractors to evaluate the site carefully to determine where pollution of the property lies, agency spokeswoman Laura Renwick said. Clarios will have to do further evaluation and cleanup, if necessary, even though the plant is closed, she said.

“Johnson Controls/Clarios is responsible for the corrective action program .... regardless of the operational status,’’ Renwick said.