A Maryland-based chemical company with a history of environmental violations is planning to build a pilot plastics recycling plant within a mile of several residential neighborhoods in Columbia.

W.R. Grace & Co. — which became famous nationwide after a major water-pollution case in Woburn, Massachusetts, that led to the 1998 film “A Civil Action” — submitted an air permit application to house the manufacturing facility at its headquarters. The company said it is pioneering new efforts to reduce the amount of plastic waste by recycling it into “plastic precursors.” If successful, W.R. Grace says, the process will be better for air emissions and will keep more plastics out of oceans and landfills.

But residents are worried about breathing in air laced with dangerous contaminants and about the byproducts of the chemicals associated with plastics production — known as forever chemicals because they do not break down — getting into the water supply. When ingested, per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances can lead to cancer, low birth rates, miscarriages and thyroid issues.

Residents of the Cedar Creek neighborhood, some of whom have backyards abutting Grace’s property, have spoken out against the project. The pilot plant would also be close to Robinson Overlook, a mixed-income housing development, and sit a mile from Robinson Nature Center, a haven for wildlife and plants native to the Middle Patuxent River.

During a spring virtual public hearing about the permit, Bob Riley, director of sustainability for Grace, said that the emissions levels from the pilot plant would be very low. “We really believe there’s going to be really no impact on either the neighborhoods or the surrounding areas,” he added.

When the trees are bare at Golash and Nana Adadey’s home on Mainstream Way in the Cedar Creek neighborhood, Grace’s facilities are right on display. A black fence, put up by the company, runs right along the property lines of the Adadeys’ and their neighbors, with a “No Trespassing” sign. Signs in the ground on the Adadeys’ property face the fence, reading “Forest Retention Area … Trees For Your Future.”

The couple never opens the back windows to their house. They fear for when their grandchildren come over to visit. They never sit on their screened-in back porch. A friend of the couple who used to work for Grace said they would never live close to a company building or facility.

“Since we are at Ground Zero, the fear factor is real,” Nana Adadey said. “It could impact us down the line. We don’t want to be the first.”

Golash and Nana Adadey toured the Grace campus but were not allowed in the labs. On the tour, the couple learned that all of the homes in the Cedar Creek neighborhood, including theirs, are on land once owned by Grace, but the company sold it to a developer. According to Howard County zoning records, W.R. Grace’s original plan was to use the land to expand their “research campus uses.”

“Grace is known for polluting the air, the water and everything they can in the name of research,” Golash Adadey said at the public hearing.

Grace completed its permit application to the Maryland Department of the Environment last September. The proposal’s public comment period was scheduled to end July 29, but the agency extended it until late August.

“We do know there’s a lot of concern,” said Suna Yi Sariscak, who manages the air quality permit program and moderated the public hearing in the spring.

Jay Apperson, a spokesman for the department, said the public comment period was extended in response to a community request. After the public comment period closes, he said, the agency will take all the comments into consideration when making a final decision on the permit application.

W.R. Grace wants to have the pilot recycling plant in Columbia because the research scientists, as well as most of the company’s research and development teams, are at that campus. The pilot plant would be “a little bigger than a one-car garage” inside an existing building, a spokesperson said. When Grace looks to move out of the pilot process, the company will build the full-scale recycling plants at one, if not several, of their worldwide manufacturing sites, the spokesperson added.

“We are committed to being a good neighbor, a responsible business and a safe workplace for our 600 on-site employees, and we’re excited about this innovative plastic recycling solution that has the potential to help solve an important problem,” the company said in a statement.

But nationwide, there is uneasiness about these plastics. Microplastics get into water, the air and fish. And there is concern over the efficacy of recycling plastic.

According to a 2023 report, “Chemical Recycling: A Dangerous Deception,” this recycling process provides a “false solution.” “Chemical recycling has failed for decades, continues to fail, and there is no evidence that it will contribute to resolving the plastics pollution crisis,” according to the report published by Beyond Plastics and IPEN — the International Pollutants Elimination Network.

State regulations on “forever chemicals” are mixed. Safer States, a national alliance of environmental health organizations and coalitions, tracks PFAS bills that work to “protect people from toxic chemicals” across states. As of July, 34 states had introduced more than 300 policies and of those, 146 policies had been adopted in 29 states.

In Maryland, there are seven adopted policies regarding forever chemicals, including one law that took effect July 1. Part of that bill requires the Maryland Department of the Environment “to identify significant industrial users that currently and intentionally use PFAS chemicals” by July 2026.

In June, Baltimore City filed a lawsuit against Frito Lay, The Coca-Cola Co., PepsiCo and companies that manufacture plastics in Maryland, such as W.R. Grace, “for their significant roles in creating a plastic pollution crisis.”

Grace is a multinational company that was founded by William Russell Grace in Peru in 1854, moved its corporate headquarters to Columbia in 1999 and was acquired by Standard Industries in 2021. Grace produces “specialty chemicals and specialty materials,” including polyethylene plastics and silica gel. With 4,500 employees worldwide, there are over 500 employees at the Columbia campus, where many work in human resources, finance, marketing, sales and information technology.

The company has a manufacturing plant in Curtis Bay in Baltimore, roughly 25 miles from its headquarters.

Howard County Council Chair Deb Jung, who lives within 1 1/2 miles of the Grace headquarters in Columbia, shares residents’ concerns about the project, including “the potential harm to the people who live in close vicinity to this R&D facility.”

“It seems like an incompatible use of land when a housing development is allowed to be built right next to a company who is engaged in activities like Grace,” Jung added.

Looking to move for his wife’s job with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, Rene Maldonado said the couple settled on Columbia. “It’s a great, beautiful area. We like it here,” said Maldonado, a retired chemical scientist.

Maldonado, who has multiple sclerosis, said their new home represented a place of rest. A place where he could enjoy retirement outdoors.

Like his neighbors, Maldonado does not want the pilot plant in his backyard. A former research and development manager, Maldonado said the chemical plants he worked at were not near residences.

“There’s no excuse not to do it away from here,” Maldonado said. “They chose to do it at the nearest point to our houses.”

It would be a different story if the plant were proposed for a clinical site away from residences, he said. “But here, the margin for error is very small. When you’re just setting any fire and explosion, any release to the atmosphere, is going to potentially have a large impact in our community,” Maldonado said.

Rita Patel purchased her home on Cross Creek Drive in October 2021. She bought lot nine, one of the first homes to be sold. A longtime western Howard County resident, Patel moved to Columbia for its parks, walking trails and status as a top place to live in the entire country. She settled on the Cedar Creek neighborhood because of the new construction.

When looking at the neighborhood, Patel, a regulatory attorney, inquired about Grace and was told the nearby buildings were the company’s headquarters and only administrative work went on there. Patel didn’t learn about the permit application until after she had settled into her new home.

“I never imagined that W.R. Grace is going to put a pilot plant up, they could be emitting toxic chemicals that would impact our air quality and would not allow me to walk around the neighborhood, which I love to do, or run on a nice day,” Patel said. “I never imagined that.”