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Federal environmental enforcement highlights in Indiana

Release Date: 11/15/2006
Contact Information: Anne Rowan, (312) 353-9391, [email protected]

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
06-OPA217

CHICAGO (Nov. 15, 2006) - U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Region 5 today announced that its enforcement actions in Indiana in 2006 have caused regulated entities to pay more than $27.1 million to correct past environmental violations and help prevent future ones.

In the past fiscal year, EPA resolved 56 actions against regulated entities and assessed a total of more than $1.6 million in civil penalties for various air, water, hazardous waste, community right-to-know and pesticide violations. As part of settlement agreements, Indiana regulated entities also agreed to do supplemental environmental projects worth about $310,000. In addition, EPA initiated another 33 new cases in the state.

"Complying with the law is key to protecting public health and the environment," said Regional Administrator Mary A. Gade. "We and our partners at the Indiana Department of Environmental Management are committed to cleaner air, water and land for the people of Indiana."
Three of the most noteworthy cases in Indiana involved Cargill Inc.'s plants in Hammond and Lafayette, the town of Newburgh (Warrick County) and Franklin Power in Franklin.

• Cargill, a multi-state agribusiness that owns and operates grain, bean and seed oil processing plants, agreed to install air pollution control equipment at 27 facilities including those in Hammond and Lafayette. The company will pay a $1.6 million civil penalty and spend $3.5 million on environmental projects to resolve this national case. Cargill's plants were significant sources of volatile organic compounds and carbon monoxide.
• The town of Newburgh (population 3,088) paid a $56,000 civil penalty for wastewater permit violations and has already completed several construction projects to upgrade its sewage treatment plant and collection systems at a cost of about $6.4 million. The town's ambitious plan emphasizes preventive measures and should reduce an estimated 4.6 million gallons a year of sewage overflow into the Ohio River. Newburgh is also dramatically reducing the levels of total suspended solids, phosphorus, nitrogen and oxygen-depleting pollutants in its discharge.
• Franklin Power Products/Remy International Inc., a diesel engine re-builder, must pay over $850,000 in penalties for failing to comply with a previous federal administrative order requiring it to pretreat its wastewater for oil, grease, copper, lead, chromium and zinc.

• 145,358,476 pounds of pollutants reduced
• 535,385 cubic yards of contaminated soil cleaned up
• 23 million cubic yards of water and 5,740 linear feet of streams restored
• 2,368 acres of wetlands protected