WV DEP approves Clean-Seas facility amid Belle-area community concerns

PRESS RELEASE

Belle, W.Va. — The West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection (WV DEP), Division of Air Quality (DAQ), made a final permitting decision on August 13, 2026, regarding Permit Application R13-3728 for Clean-Seas West Virginia, Inc. (Belle Facility). 

From the WV DEP: “Following a comprehensive technical evaluation of the administrative record—including all formal written comments, legal briefs, technical reports, and oral testimony received during the public comment period and at the July 14, 2026, public meeting—the Director of the Division of Air Quality has issued Final Construction Permit R13-3728 to Clean-Seas West Virginia, Inc. for the construction and operation of a plastic pyrolysis chemical manufacturing facility located in Belle, Kanawha County, West Virginia.”

Morgan King, WV Citizen Action Group’s Climate & Energy Program Manager, stated: “This quick approval is unsurprising negligence. For an application marked incomplete so many times, the WV DEP had to hold the company’s hand to get it even to a complete level. This permit process in particular shows that regardless of the problems with a facility’s proposal, the DEP serves the bottom line of industry, not public or environmental health.” 

Eric Caruthers, Local Resident & Community Organizer, stated: “The neighborhoods, schools, and families of the Upper Kanawha Valley must not serve as an industrial testing ground for corporate experimentation.”

Marty Gibson, Local Resident, stated: “Living with asthma means that any increase in localized air pollution directly threatens my health, breathing, and quality of life. The Kanawha Valley already carries a heavy industrial pollution burden from the Coal Dock at Quincy and the DuPont Chemours Plant at Belle, and adding more triggers to our air is unacceptable. Any burning in the area makes me a prisoner in my own home, and the addition of these pollutants will only exacerbate the problem. I should be able to enjoy my yard and outside without worrying what will trigger an asthma attack. This permit fails to require the rigorous, continuous emissions monitoring necessary to guarantee the daily safety of people like me who live right next to the site. Further, the process of awarding a permit based on site-specific criteria does not consider the cumulative effect of all the other pollutants in our air.”

Laura Wellstead, Local Resident, stated: “As a resident and senior citizen, I have deep concerns regarding the proposed Clean-Seas plastics incinerator and the lack of communication and action from officials representing the unincorporated areas of West Virginia and local municipalities. It is alarming that an out-of-state corporation has received over $15 million in taxpayer funding, while the local community, which includes Riverside High School, is left to face the negative impacts of increased air pollution in exchange for the unverified promise of approximately 40 jobs. Our taxpayer dollars should be utilized to support and improve our communities, rather than fund projects that pose a risk to public health.”

Lani Wean, Moms Clean Air Force’s West Virginia Field Organizer, stated: “Once again, the WV DEP has proven its commitment to holding the hand of applicants throughout the permitting process despite community opposition. Clean-Seas’ proposed plastic-burning facility near Belle could smother our community with dioxins, benzene, hydrogen chloride, heavy metals, and other toxic air pollutants, which could seriously jeopardize the health and safety of our children and families. The WV DEP’s frivolous and bureaucratic justifications for the proposal’s legal and technical shortcomings are an affront to the thoughtful, detailed concerns submitted by community members, advocates, and experts. For the sake of our children and our collective future, West Virginians will continue to demand the right to clean air and clean water.”

Anaïs Peterson, EarthWorks’ Lead Petrochemicals Campaigner, stated: “West Virginia DEP’s decision to approve this permit just over two weeks after the close of the comment period is a slap in the face to residents who provided thoughtful and detailed comments opposing this facility. This facility poses an inherent risk to residents of Belle and the surrounding area. Plastic burning is toxic and risky, with few benefits to anyone other than the fossil fuel industry itself. West Virginians deserve clean air and water and a Department of Environmental Protection that will step up to protect them.”