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Lafarge North America, Inc. Clean Air Act Settlement

(WASHINGTON, D.C. – January 21, 2010) The United States today filed two major Clean Air Act settlements to reduce air emissions from container glass and Portland cement plants throughout the country, announced Cynthia Giles, Assistant Administrator for the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s Office of Enforcement and Compliance Assurance, and Ignacia S. Moreno, Assistant Attorney General for the Environment and Natural Resources Division.  The settlements cover all 15 U.S. plants owned by Saint-Gobain Containers, Inc., the nation’s second largest container glass manufacturer, and all 13 U.S. plants owned by the Lafarge Company and two subsidiaries, the nation’s second largest manufacturer of Portland cement.  These settlements are the first system-wide settlements for these sectors under the Clean Air Act and require pollution control upgrades, acceptance of enforceable emission limits, and payment of civil penalties.

The facilities are estimated to reduce a combined 41,000 tons of sulfur dioxide (SO2), nitrogen oxides (NOx), and particulate matter (PM) each year.  SO2, NOx, and PM can trigger respiratory difficulties and asthma, and environmental harms such as acid rain, visibility impairments, and water quality impacts.

“Consistent with EPA Administrator Lisa P. Jackson’s seven priorities, these settlements call for tough new controls and innovative technologies to cut down on harmful air emissions that threaten the health of millions of Americans,” said Cynthia Giles, Assistant Administrator for EPA’s Office of Enforcement and Compliance Assurance. “I am also  pleased that 18 states and two local governments have joined as signatories to these actions.”

Lafarge North America, Inc., based in Herndon, Va., and two of its subsidiaries have agreed in a consent decree filed in federal court in Benton, Ill., to install and implement control technologies at an expected cost of up to $170 million to reduce emissions of NOx by more than 9,000 tons each year and SO2  by more than 26,000 tons per year at their cement plants

The states of Alabama, Illinois, Iowa, Kansas, Michigan, Missouri, New York, Ohio and the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection, the South Carolina Department of Health and Environmental Control, the Washington State Department of Ecology, the Oklahoma Department of Environmental Quality, and the Puget Sound Clean Air Agency are joining the settlement. 

 

Enforcement Priorities

For more information, contact:

Apple Chapman
Attorney-Advisor
OECA, Air Enforcement Division
1200 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW, MC 2242A
Washington, DC 20460
Phone: (202) 564-5666
chapman.apple@epa.gov

Shaun Burke
Senior Environmental Engineer
Air Enforcement Division, U. S. EPA
1200 Pennsylvania Ave NW (MC 2242A)
Washington, DC 20460
burke.shaun@epa.gov
(202) 564-1039

 

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