Wallingford chemical maker Cytec Industries will pay a civil penalty of $155,000 and spend $150,000 to perform an environmentally beneficial project to resolve federal Environmental Protection Agency claims that Cytec violated the federal Clean Air Act.
Cytec’s Wallingford plant contained a production line that once made resins to coat furniture, EPA said.
These resins contained “hazardous air pollutants,” such as formaldehyde and methanol, that turned up in an EPA inspection, the agency said. Cytec also failed to submit to EPA an adequate operating plan for several tanks that store volatile liquids and failed to properly respond to EPA’s requests for information, the agency said.
“Hazardous air pollutants can pose a serious risk to workers and to the public,” said EPA Acting Regional Administrator Ira Leighton. “It is critical that all companies make every effort to comply with environmental laws and regulations and minimize pollution.”
The environmental project will reduce volatile organic compounds and methane emissions from a landfill located at Cytec’s facility. Under the settlement, Cytec will conduct emissions monitoring of the landfill and subsequently design and implement a system to capture and control 75 percent of VOCs and methane emissions from the landfill.
The EPA said Cytec has informed the agency that it has stopped the production of spray dried resins and will dismantle the resin production line. The company still maintains storage vessels for other production lines and has submitted a revised operating plan for them.
