Continuously serving Kosciusko County since 1854
Sometimes when you're the biggest and oldest kid on the block, you get accused of being a bully.
Sometimes that's true. Sometimes it's not.
In the case of Warsaw's Dalton Corp., being highly visible has recently brought charges of everything from insensitivity to neighbors to being a major health hazard.
But, according to Jim Cartwright, general manager of the Warsaw foundry and manufacturing facility, nothing could be further from the truth.
"We really do try and be good neighbors. But a foundry is a foundry. It's heavy industry, there's going to be smoke and dust and noise," he said.
Cartwright said the company, which has been at its present location since 1913, makes steel castings for engines, transmissions, air conditioning units and other steel items. In the production process, Dalton recycles 400 tons of steel per day and pours 825 tons to make the castings.
It employs 800 county residents, has a payroll of nearly $32 million per year and pays $370,000 in property tax annually.
"We feel we are an asset to the community and a good corporate neighbor," he said. "When there's a problem, we try to work with people to solve it."
Boyd Wear, director of plant engineering and maintenance, said his staff takes complaints from the surrounding neighborhoods seriously, and when there is a problem that can be corrected, it is taken care of immediately. The company also looks for ways to reduce noise when replacing the heavy equipment used in production.
"We've done everything we can do to reduce noise - all new equipment is counter-balanced and designed to reduce the noise as much as possible," Wear said. "But a 10-ton piece of machinery can only be so quiet."
Despite all their best efforts, sometimes problems do arise. According to Barry Fordanish, the company was cited by the Indiana Department of Environmental Management in June for generating fugitive dust from its property into the surrounding neighborhoods.
"IDEM cited us for excessive dust crossing the fence," Fordanish said. "As a part of the agreed order with them, we've paved our outlots with 34,000 square feet of concrete and an additional 15,780 square feet with asphalt."
The company was responsive and cooperative with IDEM when they were notified of the problem, according to David McIver, air section chief of IDEM's office of enforcement. While the notice of order said the company would be fined as much as $500 per day if the fugitive dust wasn't reduced, the fine has not been and will not be imposed because of Dalton's remedial actions.
"The fine is really just an incentive - encouragement - for the company to stay committed to correcting the problem," McIver said. "From our standpoint, with the actions the company has taken, they are in compliance."
One allegation particularly disturbing to Cartwright and Wear is that the company's operation is the cause of cancer in the neighborhoods surrounding the plant.
"That's a very emotional issue," Cartwright said. "But I'm sure that nothing we do is the cause of an increase in the cancer rate."
Wear concurred, saying Dalton's emissions are less likely to be the cause of cancer than other events or mechanical operations.
"There may be slight traces of carcinogenic agents in what we exhaust. But not as much as in what you'd see in any other combustion process, such as car exhaust or furnace exhaust, and a lot less than smoking," he said.
Wear's assessment is confirmed by both the Kosciusko County Health Department and the Indiana Department of Health.
"I've never seen any data that would support the allegation that there is a cancer cluster near the Dalton facility that is caused by Dalton," said Bob Weaver, county department administrator.
Robert Teclaw, state epidemiologist for the Indiana Department of Health, said the cancer rates for Kosciusko County do not support the contention of a cancer cluster near Dalton Corp. Furthermore, he said, the cause of a cancer cluster is very difficult, if not impossible, to prove.
"In the history of the United States, very few confirmed cancer clusters have been explained. What clusters that have been studied, it's very hard to determine specific causes, because the effects are subtle and it's very hard to arrive at a definitive cause."
Teclaw likened assigning most cancer clusters to a single cause to the "Texas Sharpshooter" phenomenon.
"That's where you shoot a rifle into the side of a barn, then paint the target around the hole, and claim to hit the bulls-eye," he said.
Wear said Dalton will continue to work with their neighbors to resolve any complaints about noise and dust, but there is only so much the company can do.
"Until the 1940s, we were out here all by ourselves. There was only one house between us and Winona Lake," he said. "While we will work with the homeowners the best we can, we are a foundry, and were a foundry when they built out here."
