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NORTH AMERICAN CHEMICAL TO PAY $320,000 AIR POLLUTION PENALTY

Release Date: 1/27/1997
Contact Information: Dave Schmidt, (415) 744-1578

    (San Francisco)--The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (U.S. EPA) and the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) today announced the lodging of a Consent Decree with North American Chemical Co. under which the company will pay a civil penalty of $320,000 to settle alleged Clean Air Act violations at the company's mineral processing plant in Trona, San Bernardino County, California.  

     Under the agreement, the company has also made a commitment to spend at least $140,000 to reduce emissions of fine particulate matter known as PM10 by at least 30 tons per year.  In addition, the company is required to reduce nitrogen oxide (NOx) emissions by at least 350 tons per year by either  installing pollution controls on, or shutting down, a gas-fired  turbine.

     "This agreement will help achieve cleaner air for Californians who live in San Bernardino County," said Dave Howekamp, Director of U.S. EPA's regional air division.  

     EPA alleged that the facility violated the Clean Air Act by modifying a gas turbine in ways that substantially increased nitrogen oxide emissions, without first securing a permit that would have limited those emissions and in violation of an emission limit for NOx.  U.S. EPA also alleged that the facility violated several particulate matter requirements.  

     The chemical plant extracts products such as potash, borax, and soda ash from a brine slurry pumped out from the dry lakebed of Searles Lake.  The facility has boilers and a gas turbine that produce steam for the chemical processes, while also generating electricity.  
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