EPA Reaches Agreement With Certainteed On Clean-Air Violations

U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Region 5 has reached an agreement with CertainTeed Corp. on alleged clean-air violations at the company's roofing materials manufacturing plant in Shakopee, Minn.

The agreement, which includes a $41,250 environmental project and a $13,750 penalty, resolves EPA allegations that CertainTeed failed to include two units of its manufacturing process in its state operating permit application and operated those units without a permit. EPA also alleged that another part of the company's manufacturing process was operated without the emission control efficiency required in the company's state operating permit.

For its environmental project, CertainTeed will buy and permanently retire sulfur dioxide or nitrogen oxide emission credits. This will permanently reduce the emissions of one or both of these pollutants allowed under the Clean Air Act.

Because CertainTeed self-disclosed the alleged violations and satisfied eight of nine self-disclosure policy criteria required by EPA, the penalty proposed in the complaint was reduced by 75 percent. Self-disclosure is taken into consideration when penalties are assessed and during settlement discussions.