NEWPORT, Ky. — Preliminary analysis of sensor readings around River Metals Recycling, known as RMR, in Newport, suggests spikes in the emission of particulate matter when the facility uses its materials shredder.
The data collection is being carried out in partnership with the Sierra Club, an environmental advocacy agency consisting largely of volunteers and the Environmental Protection Agency Division 4, which serves Kentucky as well as local residents. Separate studies around noise and soil quality have also occurred.
Newport city staff and city residents have spent about three years mired in a court case intended to require River Metals Recycling to comply with noise regulations after neighbors have reported sporadic and sometimes daily explosions for years.
Watch more about the charges against RMR below:
The Sierra Club attributes the explosions to RMR's failure to engage in de-polluting, which involves draining fuel and other volatile chemicals from deposited materials before they are put through the shredder. Failure to do this can cause explosions, fires, and clouds of smoke.
The club began getting sensors early in 2024. They placed 10 around RMR in Newport along with one in Wilder as a control sensor, and they began collecting data in June. They also installed a video camera nearby to monitor for smoke and vapor clouds. Final results will be shared with the Kentucky Energy and Environmental Cabinet Division for Air Quality to determine RMR’s compliance with The Clean Air Act and air quality permits.
RMR signed an agreement with Newport on Feb. 20, 2023, that said it had a year tomove its shredding operations out of the city to its primary shredding operations at the former Garden Street Iron & Metal based in Cincinnati, which the company acquired in 2023. Around the time of the agreement, RMR said it was planning to install a pre-shredder, which would break debris down into less dangerous chunks of materials before going through the main shredder, at the Cincinnati facility.
Under the agreement, the facility could continue to operate as a collection, processing and transfer site. RMR was also required to install a FireRover at the Newport facility, which can detect emerging hot spots and further reduce the risk of fire. The agreement allowed RMR to continue using its Newport shredder under certain conditions, as well. Several residents at the time worried the agreement might have left some loopholes open that would allow RMR to continue shredding in Newport.
Watch Newport residents who experienced two explosions at the plant in December below:
“With that explosion, they in my mind have violated not the order, they have violated our law again,” Rechtin said in December. “Being a nuisance to our people, and they have violated our noise ordinance.”
The Campbell County District Court granted an extension of the shredding termination agreement on Feb. 21, which extended the deadline for the cessation of RMR's shredding operations from Feb. 20 to March 31. In a press release from RMR Regional Manager Neal Coulardot, the company stated that it planned to complete its move before the March 31 deadline.
"Over the past 12 months, RMR has kept Newport and Campbell County officials informed of a number of manufacturing delays and shipping issues, and as a result, an Agreed Order extending RMR’s Newport shredding deadline to March 31, 2025, was entered by the District Court on February 21, 2025," the statement reads. "RMR indicated that it expects to cease shredding operations in Newport before that date."
The Sierra Club shared the findings of its sensor data collection at a meeting at the Newport branch of the Campbell County Library on Wednesday. Although they emphasized that the data collection is ongoing, early results indicate an increase in particulate matter when the shredder is in operation on weekdays, especially around the time when the shredder started up in the morning. Similar spikes tended not to occur on the weekends when the shredder was not in operation.
"It doesn't seem that the shredder is contributing to overall, consistent air pollution, but it looks like the operation of the shredder, especially at startup, does cause PM 2.5 to be detected in the community," wrote Sierra Club Environmental Health Chair Andrea Ankram in an email. "This is a violation of RMR's air quality permit as they are not permitted to have emissions cross the [property] fence line for more than 5 mins. So, the data is complicated, but I think it does show an issue with the shredder operation and PM 2.5 emissions into the community."
Ankram and others at the meeting expressed frustration with state environmental authorities, but they hoped the federal government could use the data they collect as a case study for other communities experiencing similar issues around the country, in addition to an enforcement action that might occur locally.
"How do we go about proving this? That's the challenge because we can see it, and residents have seen it," Ankram said. "They've taken pictures, they've taken videos, they've sent the pictures to Kentucky, and they come and they look, they do an inspection, and they say, 'Oh, everything's okay right now,' and nothing changes."
Watch community members address concerns and solutions about air pollution below:
They also discussed two bills currently moving through the general assembly. The first is House Bill 137, which narrows the acceptable evidence that the state air pollution control board could bring against a firm during an enforcement action, limiting it to only the most up-to-date methods accepted by the EPA.
Although this would not disqualify the sensor data as it is being collected according to EPA standards, it would disqualify evidence collected by normal citizens—videos, photos, and other citizen-produced information would no longer be admissible.
The second is Senate Bill 89, which aims to redefine "Waters of the Commonwealth," basically removing state authority over numerous streams, wetlands and other water sources. Sierra Club members argued this would remove the ability of the state to enforce pollution regulations in many of the state's waterways.
"By limiting that definition, it limits the ability to protect a lot more headwaters," said Sierra Club Legislative Chair Brant Owens. "And if we don't protect the headwaters, pollution runs downhill or runs downstream. So, if the headwaters can be polluted, if groundwater can be polluted, it's going to go all the way down to minor rivers, major rivers."
Owens encouraged the attendees to contact their legislators to advocate against the bills.
The Sierra Club will continue collecting sensor data until the end of May. You can learn more about the club on its Facebook page.
Haley Parnell contributed reporting to this story.
This story originally appeared on our partner's website LINK nky.
