Three manufacturers of sulphuric acid have agreed to spend at least USD12 million on air pollution controls that are expected to eliminate more than 3,000 tons of harmful emissions annually from six production plants in Louisiana, Ohio, Oklahoma, Texas, and the Wind River Reservation in Wyoming, the US Environmental Protection Agency and the US Justice Department announced recently. Chemtrade Logistics, Chemtrade Refinery Services, and Marsulex also will pay a civil penalty of USD700,000 under the Clean Air Act settlement.
“The companies are expected to reduce harmful air pollution by an estimated 3,000 tons per year, which is well over half of their annual emissions,” said Granta Y. Nakayama, assistant administrator for EPA’s Office of Enforcement and Compliance Assurance. “Today’s settlement will improve air quality for millions of people.”
“This settlement is the product of our sustained effort to bring all sulphuric acid manufacturers into compliance with the Clean Air Act,” said Michael Guzman, Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General for the Justice Department's Environmental and Natural Resources Division. “We are pleased that the cooperative effort among us, our state counterparts, the Northern Arapaho Tribe, and the defendants resulted in this victory for the environment.”
Between January 2010 and January 2013, at its four production facilities in Beaumont, Texas; Shreveport, La.; Tulsa, Okla.; and Riverton, Wyo., Chemtrade will upgrade existing pollution control equipment called scrubbers to meet new, lower emission limits for sulphur dioxide. At its facility in Oregon, Ohio, Marsulex will improve chemical processing equipment, which will reduce sulphur dioxide emissions by no later than July 2011. Finally, Marsulex will install a new scrubber at Chemtrade’s sulphuric acid plant in Cairo, Ohio, to meet lower sulphur dioxide limits by July 2011.
This settlement is the third nationwide compliance agreement in a Clean Air Act initiative under which DOJ and EPA expect to reach similar agreements with other sulphuric acid manufacturers. The first and second nationwide sulphuric acid compliance agreements were announced in 2007 with Rhodia Inc. and Dupont. As a result of the three settlements, this initiative has now secured pollution controls at 20 plants and is expected to eliminate a combined total of 35,000 tons of sulphur dioxide emissions per year.
Chemtrade’s and Marsulex’s plants produce sulphuric acid by burning sulphur or used sulphuric acid, thereby creating sulphur dioxide, which poses a danger to children, the elderly, and people with heart and lung conditions.
The government’s complaint, filed with the consent decree, alleges that Chemtrade and Marsulex made modifications to their plants, which increased emissions of sulphur dioxide without first obtaining pre-construction permits and installing required pollution control equipment. The Clean Air Act requires major sources of air pollution to obtain such permits before making changes that would result in a significant emissions increase of any pollutant.
Sulphuric acid has many applications, and is one of the top products of the chemical industry. Principal uses include ore processing, fertiliser manufacturing, oil refining, waste water processing and chemical synthesis.
EPA is focusing on improving compliance among industries that have the potential to cause significant amounts of air pollution, including the cement manufacturing, glass manufacturing, and acid production industries.
