The Patriots Aren’t Even Robert Kraft’s Grossest Investment

Robert Kraft is thought for a lot of issues. Owning the New England Patriots. Allegedly paying for a handjob—on tape. Formerly employing a fancy dog. Loving Donald Trump. And now, apparently, polluting.

The billionaire’s paper mill in Catawba, South Carolina has been stinking up the city for years. And according to Reuters, it’s one of many largest polluters within the U.S.

The paper mill, owned by an funding group led by Kraft referred to as New-Indy, spews out toxins together with hydrogen sulfide, which not solely smells like rotten eggs however could cause well being points starting from complications, eye and pores and skin irritation, and nausea all the best way to loss of life.

Since final yr, New-Indy has ramped up containerboard manufacturing. Kraft himself made most of his fortune in paper merchandise prior to purchasing the Patriots and turning them into the NFL’s most hated—and second-most lucrative—franchise. The ramp-up in manufacturing at New-Indy has certainly made Robert Kraft, who’s value $6.9 billion and is among the world’s richest sports activities group house owners, that a lot richer. In May, he purchased a $43 million mansion within the Hamptons. Next month, the Rolling Stones will play a private show for him and his mates. (Some of these mates had been good sufficient to gift Kraft a Bentley convertible for his eightieth birthday in what’s, I assume, the wealthy particular person model of a $20 bottle of wine.)

Meanwhile, locals are affected by the plant’s air pollution. Since March, the South Carolina Department of Health and Environmental Control has gotten a shocking 30,000 complaints concerning the plant. Yet regulators haven’t taken any motion towards the plant or its house owners. Kraft noticed extra fallout from Spygate and Deflategate, with these scandals costing the Patriots a mixed $1.25 million in NFL fines, than he has ruining Catawba’s air high quality.

“We feel like we’re being poisoned and gassed in our homes,” Karen Reilly, who lives seven miles (11 kilometers) from the plant, told the Daily Beast final month.

Environmental Protection Agency inspectors recorded hydrogen sulfide ranges as excessive as 15,900 components per billion close to the plant in April, Reuters discovered. The gasoline can start taking a toll on respiratory and inflicting migraines and nausea from extended publicity to concentrations as little as 2,000 components per billion.

Kraft’s New-Indy purchased the Catawba paper mill from Resolute Forest Products in December 2018 and transformed it from producing coated paper for magazines to creating containerboard used to make cardboard bins. The firm completed the transformation late final yr.

According to disclosures with the EPA examined by Reuters, the mill can be pumping out alarming quantities of soot, which has been linked to coronary heart and lung illness, worsening respiratory situations like bronchial asthma and bronchitis, and even start defects.

New-Indy’s most up-to-date stack check in 2020 spewed out as much as 300 kilos (136 kilograms) of particulate matter air pollution, which is 50 occasions extra air pollution than different giant U.S. paper mills. On common, it produced 36% extra air pollution final yr than it did beneath the earlier house owners in 2016. The facility’s largest boiler emitted particulate matter at a charge of 157 kilos (71 kilograms) per hour on common, peaking at 282 kilos (128 kilograms) per hour.

Residents have launched three federal civil lawsuits towards the corporate over the plant’s foul-smelling and poisonous emissions. The most up-to-date go well with, filed in June, stated 740 complaints mentioning nausea have been filed, as have 650 complications, 370 about nostril or throat irritation, and 360 about eye irritation. Others have reported coughing, problem respiratory, bronchial asthma assaults, and dizziness. Many additionally complained of the inescapable rank odor stepping into their homes. [Editor’s note: This is much like the festering smell of mediocrity that hovers over the Tom Brady-less Patriots, not that I’m bitter, hahaha, what, why would you even suggest that?? Anyways, the air pollution issue is obviously a much more serious issue and dangerous to human health.]

“We are prisoners,” one resident stated, “in our own smelly home.”