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U.S. EPA settles Clean Air Act case against Campbell Soup Supply

Release Date: 3/4/2005
Contact Information: Mark Merchant, (415) 947-4297

SAN FRANCISCO -- The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency announced today that it has reached a $72,500 settlement with the Campbell Soup Supply Company, LLC for alleged violations of clean air regulations.

Campbell Soup Supply is a limited liability company owned by Campbell Soup Company.

Under a consent agreement and final order issued by the EPA, Campbell Soup Supply will pay a penalty for allegedly violating the San Joaquin Valley Unified Air Pollution Control District’s Regulation 4305 for steam generator emissions at its tomato processing facility in Stockton.

The SJVUAPCD rule has been incorporated into the State Implementation Plan for California and is enforceable by the U.S. EPA under the federal Clean Air Act.

The processing plant produces tomato paste by extracting water from the tomatoes and then cooking them with high temperature steam from two steam generators.

EPA inspectors reviewed a response submitted by Campbell Soup Supply to an information request sent by the agency -- as well as filed a complaint in 2004 -- alleging that one of the steam generators emitted nitrous oxides (NOx) in quantities exceeding the air district’s allowable limit for such emissions in 10 separate occasions in 2002.

In the presence of light and heat, NOx is a primary component of ground-level ozone, or smog. In 2002 the area the air district serves was classified as being in "severe nonattainment" for ozone.

"The EPA and the San Joaquin Valley Unified Air Pollution Control District are doing everything possible to reduce smog in the San Joaquin Valley," said Deborah Jordan, director of the Air Division in the EPA’s regional office in San Francisco. "It is incumbent for businesses in the valley be good environmental stewards and do their part to reduce these sort of emissions."

Campbell Soup Supply has since made necessary adjustment at the Stockton facility to come into compliance with district regulation 4305.

For more information about ozone and your health visit: www.epa.gov/airnow/health/