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New Bedford Plant Pays $49,000 for Clean Air Act Case

Release Date: 05/07/2002
Contact Information: Andrew Spejewski, EPA Press Office (617) 918-1014

BOSTON – The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency announced today it has settled a case with American Seafoods International, LLC for alleged violations of the federal Clean Air Act at the company's New Bedford facility. The company will pay a $49,000 fine for failing to have adequate plans and programs in place to prevent accidental hazardous chemical releases at the seafood processing plant.

The complaint arose out of an inspection following the accidental release of 1,384 pounds of ammonia into the air from the plant on January 8, 2001. The plant is located in a mixed industrial and residential area.

The company now has a risk management plant in place. Since last year's release, the plant has also made significant upgrades to their safety and prevention systems.

"Last year's accident at American Seafood showed how important it is for facilities to have high-quality programs in place for preventing and responding to chemical releases," said Robert W. Varney, regional administrator for EPA's New England Office. "Although there were no serious problems from that mishap, the potential for problems was there. Now that a plan is in place, and with the other improvements the plant has made, the neighborhood is safer."

EPA's complaint alleged that the facility violated a section of the Clean Air Act requiring facilities to prepare and implement plans to prevent accidental hazardous chemical releases and minimize the consequences of accidental releases that do occur. Specifically, the act requires owners and operators of facilities that use or store certain hazardous materials over threshold amounts to submit a risk management plan (RMP) that includes a hazard assessment, a prevention program and an emergency response program. The company had inadequate risk management programs in place before the January release and it had not submitted an acceptable plan to EPA.

For more information about the Clean Air Act and its enforcement program, visit the EPA Web site: https://www.epa.gov/region1/compliance/enfair.html.