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EPA Sues Cemex over Air Quality

March 1, 2007 |

EPA sues Cemex over air quality
Victorville plant controls cited
Originally published in the Signal 02/28/2007

Cemex in the news again. This time the company failed to adopt proper measures to cut air pollution at its Victorville cement plant.
The complaint filed Monday, the Department of Justice accuses Cemex of failing to install the protective devices despite spending millions to renovate the facility during the past decade.

Quoting EPA spokesman, Francisco Arcaute;
“What the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency wants is that Cemex install proper air pollution controls that could reduce nitrogen oxide emissions in the general Victorville area,”  “That’s why we’ve taken these legal steps.”
In the lawsuit, it states, Cemex California LLC made major improvements in 1997 and 2000 without getting permits required by the Clean Air Act, a measure the federal government adopted in 1990 to set limits on emissions. The company also failed to install high-tech emissions controls that would limit pollutants such as nitrogen oxide, which cause smog and trigger breathing difficulties in children and the elderly.
 
The EPA says Victorville’s air doesn’t meet federal standards for ozone or particulate matter, but it would not comment on the role Cemex plays in perpetuating the problem.

“The facility is a `major’ source of air pollution, however, under the Clean Air Act,” Arcaute said.

Should the EPA prevail in court, Cemex could face fines of up to $27,500 a day for violations that occurred from January 1997 to March2004, and up to $32,500 a day for violations after March.

The complaint does not suggest a specific penalty, and the EPA declined to comment on when the violations began or what date penalties might begin accruing.

The EPA had cited Cemex for the Victorville violation in September 2005, but the parties have been unable to resolve their differences in the interim. A branch of the agency that oversees the Midwest cited a Cemex facility in Fairborn, Ohio, in the past year or so, Arcaute said.
Both the city of Victorville and the agency that regulates air-quality standards for the Victorville region say Cemex has been a good neighbor in that community.

“In terms of any kind of major violations, I can’t think of anything major or outstanding,” said Eldon Heaston, executive director of the Mojave Desert Air Quality Management District. “They usually are in compliance.”
 


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