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Reducing Air Pollution in Humboldt County, California
On October 2, 2007, the EPA, the California Air Resources Board, and North Coast Unified Air Quality Management District announced a $5 million settlement with Evergreen Pulp, Inc. that will protect air quality in the Eureka, Calif. area by reducing emissions of particulate matter and hazardous air pollutants from its wood pulp mill by approximately 340 tons annually. Evergreen Pulp allegedly violated the federal emission standard for hazardous air pollutants by approximately 230%, and violated monitoring, reporting, and recordkeeping requirements. The company also allegedly violated state air pollution control laws for nuisance, opacity, and air pollution control equipment maintenance requirements.
The facility was constructed in 1965 by a predecessor of Louisiana Pacific, Inc. LP owned the facility until February 2001, when it sold the mill to Samoa Pacific Cellulose, Inc., and Stockton Pacific, Inc., both of which were financed by PPM Investors, a Chicago venture capital firm. Evergreen Pulp, Inc. acquired the facility in January 2005. Evergreen Pulp is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Lee & Man Paper Manufacturing, Ltd., one of the largest containerboard manufacturers in China. Much of the pulp produced at the Eureka mill is shipped to China for use in Lee & Man’s containerboard manufacturing facilities.
Shortly after Evergreen acquired the facility, Evergreen applied for a variance from the hearing board for the North Coast Unified Air Quality Management District (“District”). The basis for the application was that source tests conducted in November and December 2004 indicated that SDT and lime kiln were not complying with PM-10 limits in the facility’s Title V permit. An interim variance was granted in March 2005. Subsequent testing in April 2005 indicated that the lime kiln had returned to compliance with the applicable PM emissions limits. The hearing board granted a regular variance, for the SDT only, on June 28, 2005. The variance allowed Evergreen to install a “spray curtain” to pre-treat gases entering the SDT scrubber. In late July 2005, the District requested assistance from EPA and the California Air Resources Board with regard to compliance issues at the facility.
Following investigation of compliance issues with respect to the SDT, EPA Region 9 issued a Finding of Violation (“FOV”) on September 12, 2005. The FOV stated that EPA found the facility in violation of the SDT PM-10 emission limits in the facility’s Title V permit, as evidenced by the results of five separate source tests conducted between December 2003 and March 2005. EPA continued its investigation, and issued an FOV for the lime kiln on October 20, 2005, based on source tests conducted in August 2005 and three other source tests between December 2003 and December 2004. Additional investigation led EPA Region 9 to conclude that the facility was also violating the NESHAP for Chemical Recovery Combustion Sources at Kraft, Soda, Sulfite, and Stand-Alone Semichemical Pulp Mills, 40 C.F.R. Part 63, Subpart MM. On April 6, 2006, EPA Region 9 issued an FOV stating that it found the facility to be out of compliance with the requirements of 40 C.F.R. Part 63, Subpart MM.
The Consent Decree filed on October 2, 2007 requires Evergreen to comply with several injunctive requirements to assure the facility’s compliance with the Clean Air Act. The Decree requires Evergreen to comply with emissions limits for PM-10, HAPs and opacity limits that are applicable to the SDT and lime kiln. Evergreen expended approximately $4 million to install and commence operation of new pollution control equipment to comply with these standards. The Decree also requires Evergreen to comply with monitoring, reporting and recordkeeping (“MRR”) requirements, including installation and operation of a continuous opacity monitor system (“COMS”) on the lime kiln stack. The Decree also requires Evergreen to submit a startup, shutdown, and malfunction plan for the lime kiln ESP to assure enforceability of Subpart MM requirements.
The District and the California Air Resources Board are co-plaintiffs in this action. The Decree requires Evergreen to pay a civil penalty of $300,000 to each of the plaintiffs, for a total of $900,000. This enforcement action will reduce emissions of particulate matter and hazardous air pollutants by approximately 340 tons annually.
The Evergreen settlement was lodged in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California on October 2, 2007. Following announcement of the settlement in the Federal Register, the settlement will be subject to a 30-day public comment period. A copy of the consent decree will be available on the U.S. Department of Justice Web site at http://www.usdoj.gov/enrd/Consent_Decrees.html.