Bush Administration Enforces Clean Air Act

By J.R. Pegg

WASHINGTON, DC, April 9, 2003 (ENS) - Federal and state officials announced settlements of Clean Air Act violations with Alcoa and Archer Daniels Midland, who have agreed to spend some $680 million in facility upgrades, environmental projects and civil penalties. The settlements reflect the Bush administration's commitment to protecting the environment, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Administrator Christie Whitman told reporters at today's press conference.

The public should judge the administration on whether "we are improving the environment," Whitman said.

"These two cases meet that requirement."

Environmentalists, who have been vocal in their criticism of the Bush administration's clean air policies, were cautious in their support for the announced deals.

"We always welcome strong enforcement but it remains to be seen how strong these agreements are," said John Walke, director of the clean air program for the Natural Resources Defense Council.

Alcoa and Archer Daniels Midlands (ADM) both were alleged by federal and state officials to have violated the New Source Review provision of the Clean Air Act, which mandates that new pollution controls be installed when plants are expanded or modified.

EPA Administrator Christie Whitman promised swift action against polluters. (Photo courtesy U.S. Environmental Protection Agency)

"It has been a very good tool," she said, "but I am not willing to say it cannot be better."

"I would rather we had worked with the facilities to prevent the pollution."

The administration has argued that New Source Review, in particular the clause that defines "routine maintenance," is counterproductive. The program is cumbersome they say, and it often prompts facility owners to not carry out needed maintenance that could reduce emissions.

But environmentalists and state pollution control officers have blasted the administration's proposed changes to New Source Review as a free ride to polluters and Walke sees these settlements as further evidence of inconsistency.

"These settlements highlight the utter contradiction and hypocrisy at the heart of the administration," said Walke. "Their New Source Review agenda is characterized by a simultaneous rule proposal to gut the very rules that EPA and Justice were trumpeting today."

The federal government and officials from 11 states and three counties alleged that Archer Daniels Midland (ADM) failed to correctly estimate emissions from hundreds of process units and had expanded other units without installing the required air pollution control technology.

Under its settlement, ADM must upgrade 52 facilities in 16 states at an estimated cost of $340 million. These upgrades, according to EPA officials, will annually eliminate some 63,000 tons of air pollutants, including carbon monoxide, particulate matter and volatile organic compounds.

Archer Daniels Midland will upgrade pollution controls at ethanol plants across the country. (Photo courtesy American Coalition for Ethanol)

Aluminum giant Alcoa was alleged to have spent some $63 million to extend the life of an aluminum smelting plant in Rockdale, Texas without fitting the plant with updated pollution controls. Under the New Source Review provision of the Clean Air Act, new pollution controls must be installed if this kind of retrofit takes place.

Three citizens groups joined federal and Texas state regulators in pursing these allegations through the courts.

The settlement with Alcoa calls for the world's largest aluminum producer to spend some $330 million to retrofit or replace the coal fired industrial boilers that fuel the smelting plant in order to cut emissions of sulfur dioxide (SO2) by 95 percent or 52,000 tons per year and nitrogen oxides (NOx) by 90 percent, or 17,000 tons per year.

The settlement also gives Alcoa the option to simply shut down the plant.

According to the EPA, Alcoa's Rockdale plant is the nation's largest emitter of SO2 and NOx.

In addition, Alcoa must pay $1.5 million in civil penalties and spend $2.5 million to retrofit Rockdale school buses and to support local habitat conservation efforts.

"This settlement shows that New Source Review is a valuable tool in cleaning our air and keeping polluters in check," said Jim Marston, Texas director for Environmental Defense, one of the plaintiffs in the Alcoa suit. "It enabled a small band of citizens to stand up to a big polluter and win."

Both companies will improve pollution control on school buses as part of their legal settlements. (Photo by Elisa Madina and Michelle Hicks courtesy Palo Verde High School)

"But given current efforts to weaken the Clean Air Act, the settlement is the best we could probably hope for," Woods said.

Whitman and other administration officials at today's announcement paid tribute to the work of state and local groups in bringing forth legal actions against both companies.

And the EPA Administrator took issue with frequent complaints by environmentalists and Congressional Democrats that the administration is soft on polluters.

"We want business and jobs, but we have a moral obligation to protect the environment and public health," Whitman said.

"Let no one for a minute think we will not enforce the laws on the books," she said. "We will offer industry the carrot, but we will use the stick if necessary."