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EPA Air Pollution Settlement with DuPont Chemical Facility in Tonawanda, NY; Approved by Federal Court

Release Date: 07/22/2014
Contact Information: Elias Rodriguez, (212) 637-3664, [email protected]

(New York, N.Y.) The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency announced that a legal agreement with E.I. du Pont de Nemours & Co. (DuPont) has been approved by the District Court for the Western District of New York. Under the agreement, DuPont will comply with air pollution control measures required by the Clean Air Act, and the Emergency Planning and Community Right-to-Know Act at its DuPont Yerkes chemical manufacturing facility in Tonawanda, New York. The Clean Air Act requires that large industrial facilities that emit hazardous air pollutants report emissions and have effective pollution controls. Hazardous air pollutants may cause serious health effects, such as respiratory effects, birth defects and cancer.

As a result of the agreement approved by the Court, DuPont will, among other actions, test the emissions from its smoke stack and pay a civil penalty to the federal government of $440,000. After EPA’s inspection, DuPont installed equipment to reduce its emissions of hazardous air pollutants at the facility.

“EPA continues to work to protect the health of people living and working in western New York,” said EPA Regional Administrator Judith A. Enck. “Hazardous air pollutants can damage people’s health and it is imperative that companies do everything possible to reduce this type of pollution.”

Among other violations, the complaint alleges that Tonawanda DuPont facility did not have the proper operating parameters for its pollution control equipment and failed to maintain a monitoring system for the equipment. The complaint also alleges that the company violated several reporting requirements and underreported air pollution on its annual EPCRA statements.

Under the finalized and approved agreement, DuPont will:

The facility has corrected its reporting requirement deficiencies.

The agreement, which was filed as a consent decree, was lodged in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of New York.

To learn more about air issues in EPA Region 2, please visit: https://www.epa.gov/region02/air/.

To learn more about the Emergency Planning and Community Right-to-Know Act, visit:
https://www.epa.gov/epcra/what-epcra.

Follow EPA Region 2 on Twitter at http://twitter.com/eparegion2 and visit our Facebook page, http://www.facebook.com/eparegion2.

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