A chemical company with a history of environmental violations has gotten the green light to move forward with a pilot plastics recycling plant at its Columbia headquarters.

W.R. Grace & Co. submitted an air permit application to the Maryland Department of the Environment in September 2023. The agency’s decision comes nearly two years after the company submitted the application and despite fierce opposition from nearby residents and other community members.

MDE “has determined that the proposed installation would not cause violations of any applicable air pollution control regulations. The Department has made a final determination to issue the permit-to-construct,” according to the agency’s final determination docket.

Grace is looking to pioneer new efforts to reduce the amount of plastic waste by recycling it into “plastic precursors.” To experiment, Grace plans to set up a small pilot lab that, if successful, would create a process that is better for air emissions and keep more plastics out of landfills and oceans, the company has said.

The company’s headquarters is located near the intersection of Cedar Lane and Route 32 and close to several residential neighborhoods, including Cedar Creek and Robinson Overlook, a mixed-income housing development. It also sits about a mile from the Robinson Nature Center, a haven for plants and wildlife native to the Middle Patuxent River.

Nearby residents worry about the risk of pollutants contaminating the air they breathe and getting into the water supply. Per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, known as forever chemicals, can lead to cancer, miscarriages, low birth rates and thyroid issues when ingested.

In a statement, a Grace spokesperson said: “We are committed to operating in full compliance with the conditions set forth by MDE and appreciate their thorough, science-based review, as well as the Howard County community’s engagement throughout this process.”

Grace drew attention nationally after a water contamination incident in Woburn, Massachusetts, which inspired the book and 1998 film “A Civil Action.”

Over the past year, the Stop Grace Coalition, made up of Cedar Creek neighborhood residents, some of whose backyards abut the W.R. Grace property, and other community members have pushed back against the proposed project.

The coalition said in a statement that it was “outraged” by the MDE’s decision.

“Despite receiving hundreds of public comments from scientists, environmental advocates, and local residents, MDE chose to side with corporate interests over community well-being,” the coalition said in a news release.

Rene Maldonado, a Cedar Creek resident, said in a statement that MDE’s decision is “a sad day for the people of Maryland.”

“No provision was made in the permit to safeguard the health of the children living just 70 meters from this facility,” Maldonado said.

W.R. Grace said last year that it wanted to locate 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 said, it will build the full-scale recycling plants at one, if not several, of its worldwide manufacturing sites.

In March, the County Council voted down a zoning change aimed at stopping Grace from adding the test plastic recycling facility. The bill, which failed 3-2, would have prohibited research and development using commercial plastic pellets in some zoning districts.

In its news release, the coalition expressed its “disappointment” with Howard County Executive Calvin Ball and Council members Opel Jones, Christiana Rigby and David Yungmann.

“They had the opportunity to protect our families, to learn from WR Grace’s past environmental abuses, and to help pass local legislation that would ensure plastic incinerators are not placed near where people live, learn, and play,” Shamieka Preston, co-facilitator of the Stop Grace Coalition, said in a statement.