GREENVILLE — In West Greenville sits a 40-acre swath of land where dead cars are cremated in a metal furnace. It's home to a recycling business, once hailed by state leaders as an economic driver for the area, now mired in controversy, lawsuits and countersuits.
Adams Scrap Recycling’s metal-melting operation is the only one of its kind in South Carolina. The business buys scrap metal, then, in a sweat furnace that runs as hot as molten lava, reclaims aluminum to sell in bulk.
It touts itself as a bastion of sustainability — turning one man's trash into another man's treasure. But documents authenticated by The Post and Courier show that Adams Scrap has a furnace capable of sending hazardous pollutants into the air and a history of flouting emissions regulations.
Despite these issues, massive fires at the scrapyard and $15,000 in health department fines, the business continues to operate within a few hundred feet of a neighborhood. It's been a source of frustration for nearby residents, who fear that living near a metal-melting operation is hurting their health.
Some who live on Earle Drive, a stretch of more than 50 houses off White Horse Road, claim the area has become a hotbed for cancer cases and respiratory issues. They suspect emissions from Adams Scrap's furnace might be to blame.
ADAMS SCRAP RECYCLING: A business that buys scrap metal to melt and resell has been mired in controversy for several years. Owner Kamal Desor's recent attempt to rezone property between the scrapyard and neighborhood has reenergized neighbors to speak out about their fears that the business's close proximity may be harmful to their health. (Source: Esri; Greenville County)
In two ongoing lawsuits against Adams Scrap and the state Department of Health and Environmental Control, one resident alleges that the facility’s emissions caused her to go into respiratory failure while she lived on Earle Drive.
Kamal Desor, the owner of Adams Scrap Recycling, told The Post and Courier that allegations of his business causing health problems are "bogus." Desor, whose grandchildren live on Earle Drive, said he wouldn't keep his family there if he didn't believe it was safe.
In an effort to fight what he calls false accusations, Desor filed a defamation lawsuit against two outspoken residents. Some saw the lawsuit as a strategic move to discourage others from speaking in opposition to Adams Scrap.
The tension between the business and its neighbors has grown taut. Desor's recent attempt to rezone a stretch of land between the scrapyard and Earle Drive neighborhood to build storage units reenergized neighbors to speak about their mistrust of Adams Scrapyard operations.
Several residents have escalated their grievances to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, asking it to step in and investigate the business's failure to comply with state emissions regulations.
Desor believes the regulations are unfair. He said he hasn’t run the sweat furnace since last summer because the cost of fuel needed to stay compliant with health department rules is eating into his profits.
The furnace's inactivity is a relief to some residents, but not a lasting solution. There's been no guarantee that metal-melting won't start back up again or that state regulators will keep a close eye on emissions.
On the corner of Larry Court and Earle Drive, passersby can catch a glimpse of Adams Scrap Recycling from behind a metal wall that separates the scrapyard and the neighborhood.
How did we get here?
Before it was Adams Scrap Recycling, the southwest corner of Old Easley Highway and White Horse Road was a junkyard and used auto part supplier run by Rodney Adams' family for three generations.
Desor joined the company as co-owner in early 2011. Later that year, the Greenville Area Development Corporation announced that Adams Scrap planned to double its footprint on Old Easley Highway.
Then-Gov. Nikki Haley called the business "a great example of what entrepreneurship can accomplish" in South Carolina.
As Adams Scrap began to grow, local news organizations took notice. In November 2018, the Greenville News published an article titled “Immigrants’ sons turn trash into treasure, helping the poor and the environment.”
But by that time, local residents had already started to express concern. The picture painted by politicians and the media did not match what they saw from their front yards.
In the area surrounding Adams Scrap, about 1 in 5 people live below the poverty level, according to U.S. Census data.
With home prices significantly less expensive than in neighboring zip codes, it’s one of the last affordable places in Greenville County. The median home price in 29611 is $270,000, about $80,000 less than the median home price in the county and hundreds of thousands of dollars cheaper than homes in the city center.
On Earle Drive and Larry Court, the houses nearest to the facility can see the scrapyard from their driveway. Kathleen Chorbajian and her husband, Myron, have lived on Earle Drive for more than four decades, raising their children and grandchildren there.
In 2013, Kathleen was diagnosed with breast cancer. Myron was diagnosed with prostate cancer five years later. This year, Kathleen was diagnosed with lung cancer.
They didn’t think their diagnoses could be related to the scrapyard's proximity until their daughter, who was living in a house nearby, began experiencing symptoms of respiratory failure — eventually leading to hospitalization in 2021.
Kathleen Chorbajian holds up a picture of her daughter, Karissa, who was hospitalized for respiratory failure.
“Could there be any environmental factors?” Kathleen remembers the doctors asking.
“That’s when the lightbulbs went off,” she said.
What did Adams Scrap do wrong?
One DHEC inspector tried to shut down Adams Scrap Recycling in 2018.
During inspections, Tobbi Stewart took to the asphalt of Earle Drive and Larry Court in a high-visibility vest that read "DHEC" on the back. As he walked around, neighbors approached him with their questions and concerns about Adams Scrap. He, too, was concerned.
While visiting the facility, Stewart saw that Adams Scrap's sweat furnace had exploded and the owner failed to notify state regulators. He noted that the metal Adams Scrap planned to melt was "contaminated with petroleum and oil. It was really concerning."
Shortly before leaving the department for a job in Washington state, Stewart's recommendation convinced DHEC that Adam Scrap's furnace operating permit should be canceled.
Less than a year later, after Stewart left, DHEC granted Adams Scrap another operating permit for a new sweat furnace.
In a recent interview, Stewart told The Post and Courier that the department's decision took him by surprise.
"I could not believe that," Stewart said, "After all the work I put into that one, everything that I reported to my leadership, regionally and to (the state bureau of air quality)."
Adams Scrap is on fire
In the past eight years, there have been three large fires at Adams Scrap Recycling.
The fire in 2022 was one of the largest, burning for hours and sending up a massive column of black smoke visible for miles around. Four fire departments responded. One firefighter was hospitalized.
While the fire burned, residents were told to go inside and set their air conditioning to recirculate.
Kimberly Rush couldn’t let her family stay put. She gathered her mother, aunt and their pets and evacuated to Motel 6 for the weekend.
"The goal was to stay until the smoldering had stopped," Rush said. She feared that at every point smoke was being released into the air, so were carcinogens.
Stewart, the former DHEC inspector, said fires at the scrapyard put residents at risk of inhaling particulate matter.
Particulate matter describes a mix of solid particles, like soot and smoke, that can become suspended in the air during fires and other combustion events. Studies show that long-term exposure to particulate matter increases a person's risk of developing respiratory diseases and malignant tumors.
Nicole Moon's family lived on Earle Drive for five years and saw one of the fires. When Nicole's family left in 2018, their departure was unrelated to Adams Scrap.
Two years after they moved away, her otherwise-healthy husband fell inexplicably ill. In 2020, Nick was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer. He died in August 2023.
Nicole Moon’s husband, Nick, died in 2023 of pancreatic cancer. Moon’s family lived on Earle Drive for five years.
After learning of other cases of cancer on Earle Drive, Nicole said it no longer seemed like a coincidence that her husband became sick after living there.
When asked about the number of fires, Desor said there are bound to be fires at scrapyards. He told The Post and Courier that he suspects the cause is lithium-ion batteries.
Lithium-ion batteries are found in consumer electronics and electric vehicles. Between 2013 and 2020, the EPA documented more than 200 fires that were likely caused by lithium-ion batteries. None were documented in South Carolina.
'I don't want to die'
Over the years, residents have tried to convince DHEC that something is going on in their neighborhood.
When Adams Scrap Recycling asked DHEC for permission to install a new sweat furnace in 2018, it triggered a flood of questions to the department about the scrapyard's compliance history and the number of cancer cases in the area.
In a recorded public meeting reviewed by The Post and Courier, Myron told health department officials about his worsening asthma and painted a vivid mental image of a white Ford Bronco parked on his property.
The vehicle was white on the side facing the house, Myron said, but black on the side facing the scrapyard.
Myron Chorbajian told DHEC officials that his Ford Bronco was covered in black specks on the side facing Adams Scrap Recycling.
"You want to expand the disaster we're incurring in a residential neighborhood," Myron said on the recording. "I don't want to die."
To assuage health concerns, the department solicited a cancer analysis for the neighborhood's zip code, 29611, from the state cancer registry. The study found "no evidence" of cancer clustering, therefore, no further action was required.
Since the cancer registry began in the mid-1990s, the state has identified only one true cancer cluster, according to DHEC's cancer registry website.
More than "95 percent of reports are not true clusters. They appear to be clusters because cancer is so common," the department wrote.
During a meeting on the scrapyard's request to operate a new metal furnace, health department officials acknowledged that Adams Scrap had some issues following the rules in the past.
At the time, residents said they weren't told that the reason Adams Scrap needed a new permit is because DHEC canceled its last one. But DHEC did say that if it granted Adams Scrap a new permit, department officials would ensure the business understood what was required of it.
Adams Scrap received another operating permit in February 2019.
Records show that compliance issues began not long after.
Lapses in compliance
Adams Scrap failed its first emissions test within six months of receiving a new permit. DHEC found that the business failed to control dioxin emissions, a known carcinogen. They were more than double what the state said was allowed.
Desor said that Adams Scrap "instantly" stopped operating the furnace after failing the test.
He compared the emissions test to a driver's test.
"It's a process," he said. "You fail your driver's test, you just come back and take it later, no problem. The neighbors don't understand that."
Adams Scrap failed a follow-up emissions test in February 2020, according to a DHEC consent order.
DHEC knew that Adams Scrap's new furnace could put hazardous pollutants into the air. To mitigate this, Adams Scrap agreed to install an afterburner, which is tasked with burning up emissions before they can escape into the air.
DHEC told Adams Scrap that the afterburner needs to run at temperatures of 1,800 degrees or more because higher heat results in fewer emissions.
Adams Scrap ran their afterburner, but records show it wasn't always up to par.
A notice of alleged violation signed by DHEC asserts that the facility failed to operate its afterburner at temperatures above 1,800 degrees a total of 128 times between June and October 2022.
When asked about the business's lapses in temperature compliance, Desor said it isn't economically feasible for him to run the furnace at 1,800 degrees because it uses more fuel.
"It took me about six months to realize that I can't meet the requirements because they're not economically friendly, they're not environmentally friendly," Desor said.
Desor, who is Indian, said he felt racially targeted by the department's deviation from federal standards.
The department required Adams Scrap to run its afterburner — the only one in the state — at 1,800 degrees, even though federal emission standards only require operating at 1,600 degrees. According to DHEC consent orders, the requirement was added to limit the furnace's opacity, or visible emissions.
A few years earlier, before the department adopted more stringent temperature requirements, the business was fined for allegedly violating the federal emissions standards.
All told, DHEC fined Adams Scrap $15,000 for these lapses in compliance.
But residents who spoke with The Post and Courier said it wasn't enough. They wondered why DHEC didn’t shut the business down.
Taking matters into their own hands
For the Chorbajian family, DHEC’s lack of action on compliance issues got to be too much.
Kathleen, her daughter Karissa and granddaughter Rush compiled binders of printed emails and notes — each representing hours of their time — to document their experiences with Adams Scrap and DHEC.
Last summer, Karissa filed a federal lawsuit against Adams Scrap. She alleged that the company emitted hazardous air pollutants in violation of the Clean Air Act, putting her health in jeopardy while she lived on Earle Drive.
At around the same time, she filed a separate action against DHEC in the Greenville County Court of Common Pleas, accusing the department of failing to protect her from air pollutants.
The agency cited this lawsuit as the reason it couldn't answer The Post and Courier's questions about DHEC's involvement with Adams Scrap.
Karissa declined to speak with The Post and Courier, citing her ongoing lawsuits.
Kathleen Chorbajian holds up an invitation sent out to residents of Earle Drive to discuss Adams Scrap Recycling on Feb. 25, 2019.
Karissa’s father, Myron, took to public meetings and the media to voice his waning faith that DHEC would protect the neighborhood from potential pollution.
During a community meeting, held shortly after Adams Scrap received its permit in early 2019, Myron told WYFF that he felt DHEC had turned a blind eye to neighborhood’s concerns about Adams Scrap Recycling.
A few months later, Adams Scrap Recycling filed a defamation lawsuit against Myron.
Jeremy Moore, another outspoken resident of Earle Drive, was also a named defendant. Some residents saw this as a strategic move to deter them from speaking in opposition to the business.
"He was really the figurehead of this resistance," Rush said. "The moment he got sued, everyone in the neighborhood got scared."
Myron and Moore declined to speak with The Post and Courier, citing the lawsuit.
Rush, the youngest of the group, has remained one of the most outspoken residents. She spends hours each day doing "whatever needs to be done" to get the word out about Adams Scrap.
In February, she helped draft a letter the South Carolina Environmental Law Project sent to the EPA on behalf of the Earle Drive community.
In March, Rush spoke about Adams Scrap at county council's open forum.
In April, she organized meetings with community leaders to talk about the scrapyard.
"We've been reaching out to everybody," Rush said, adding that not much has changed.
The EPA has declined to step in, citing DHEC's authority over the situation. County council has been slow to move on an ambitious claim made in a public meeting that it can revoke business licenses and might do so for Adams Scrap. Lawsuits are still in the early stages.
At this point, Rush said, it seems like everyone knows about Adams Scrap and the problems that occurred there but "no one is willing to go against them."
Editor's note: An earlier version of this story said Kamal Desor, the owner of Adams Scrap Recycling, lives on Earle Drive. While he once lived there, he no longer does. Instead, his grandchildren live in the Earle Drive house Desor still owns there.
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