Community questions PQ LLC's PCB and VOC discharges as DEP reviews Title V permit changes
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Summary
During a DEP public hearing in Chester, residents and advocates questioned PQ LLC's reported PCB discharges (up to 548,000 pg/L) and urged DEP to require VOC monitoring and continuous emissions monitors; DEP described the proposed PQ changes as administrative with no new sources or emissions increases.
Residents and environmental groups used a Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection public hearing in Chester to press questions about air and wastewater pollution from PQ LLC's sodium-silicate manufacturing facility and to urge additional monitoring as the department reviews a Title V permit modification.
Lauren Minsky, a Delaware County resident and instructor in health studies, cited 2025 permit-reporting that she said showed PQ discharged polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) into the Delaware River at concentrations as high as 548,000 picograms per liter. Minsky noted a 2013 Delaware River Basin standard of 16 pg/L for PCBs in the estuary and told the hearing that PQ's reported discharge was thousands of times higher than that standard. "So PQ's discharge for this year is 34,250 times the acceptable water quality standard," she said, and asked what DEP is doing to monitor air emissions and VOCs that may volatilize from such wastewater.
Clean Air Council representative Alyssa Felix (also appearing in the Delcora portion) urged DEP to require PQ to deploy stationary VOC and air-toxic monitors and to use gas chromatography and mass-spectrometry methods rather than rely on infrequent wastewater tests or facility-reported emissions. Felix cited a Johns Hopkins mobile monitoring van that detected plumes of VOCs (including toluene and formaldehyde) in the vicinity of PQ and neighboring chemical plants.
Preston (BP) Liles of Delco Environmental Justice said PQ is among the larger industrial polluters along the Delaware Riverfront and asked DEP to require continuous VOC monitors and reconsider proposals that rely primarily on 'good combustion practices' rather than equipment-based controls. Liles said PQ reported roughly "386,900 pounds of nitrous oxide emissions in 2020," calling that a high county-level emission for a single facility.
DEP staff, represented in the hearing by Southeast regional staff, described the permit filing (Title V operating permit 23-00016) as generally administrative and said it adds an emission limit and monitoring requirements for PQ's non-operating idling days but proposes no new sources or emissions increases. The applicant was not present at the hearing. DEP reiterated that it will not answer questions during the public hearing and that written comments received by 11:59 PM on 12/12/2025 will be addressed in a subsequent comment-and-response document.
The hearing closed after pre-registered speakers and a brief opportunity for additional testimony; DEP repeated submission instructions for written testimony to Jillian Gallagher at the Southeast Regional Office or the published email address.
