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Saint-Gobain Containers 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.”

Saint-Gobain Containers, Inc. of Muncie, Ind. has agreed, in a consent decree filed today in federal court in Seattle, to install pollution control equipment at an estimated cost of $112 million to reduce emissions of NOx, SO2, and PM by approximately 6,000 tons each year. The settlement covers all 15 of the company’s plants in 13 states.  Two of the 15 plants have been closed by Saint-Gobain for independent business reasons.

This is the federal government’s first nationwide Clean Air Act settlement with a glass manufacturer that covers all of a company’s plants.  The states of Illinois, Indiana, Louisiana, Commonwealth of Massachusetts, Missouri, North Carolina, Oklahoma, Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, Washington, and Wisconsin, as well as the Puget Sound Clean Air Agency and the San Joaquin Valley Unified Air Pollution Control District, joined in today’s settlement.

 

Enforcement Priorities

For more information, contact:

Robert Fentress
Air Enforcement Division
U. S. Environmental Protection Agency
1200 Pennsylvania Ave, NW (MC 2242A)
Washington, DC 20460
(202) 564-7023
fentress.robert @epa.gov

 

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