MADISON, Ill. – A company with ties to the Fredericktown battery processing plant that caught fire this week has a history of EPA violations.
A large fire at Interco Trading Company in 2022 caught the attention of environmental justice advocate and founder of Empire 13, J.D. Dixson.
“A couple of years ago, one of my community partners saw the fire and relayed it to me and we had wanted to raise awareness to it,” he said.
According to the EPA, about 3,800 people live within a mile of Interco in Madison, Illinois. 72% of those people are minorities. Dixson worries that environmental crises seem to disproportionately affect minority communities.
“From higher rates of asthma in Black Americans, higher rates of cancer in cities and communities that are built next to these communities as well as impacting the water system and impacting the ground to where we can’t even go into agriculture,” he said.
Interco was hit with a dozen EPA violations after a fire in 2022. That happened just two years after another fire at the facility landed it two other violations. Three were violations for “preparedness and prevention.” Another five were for violations of an unnamed federal or state statute.
FOX 2 reached out to Illinois state officials to find out more. But, a search of an EPA database shows no citations or enforcement actions related to these violations.
The attorney for the company, Al Watkins said these past violations are because of the two fires and not a reflection of how the company does business.
“That’s an error that occurred by virtue of the fire that burned up material that created smoke. The fire had nothing to do with the company but that was their material,” he said.
Interco in Illinois has the same president as Critical Mineral Recovery (CMR), the recycling center that caught fire this week in Missouri. But Watkins says they are different companies. He said that through working with the EPA and other agencies, CMR serves as an example for companies everywhere.
“Not just to be compliant, but to be a poster child. And when you’re a poster child, that doesn’t mean you don’t have accidents or fires,” Watkins said.
Watkins said CMR was the largest lithium-ion battery recycling facility in the world, except for maybe China.
“There was more money put into this project than ever before, anywhere in the world, primarily because of the safety considerations,” he said.
Watkins credits those features with saving lives this week.
CMR has set up a community information hotline Watkins says CMR has set up a community information hotline. People can get information by calling 314-576-9134.