Continental Carbon Company has reached a US$98m settlement with the US Environmental Protection Agency (USEPA) and the US Department of Justice to implement a series of improvements designed to reduce air emissions from its three US-based plants.
The company, which is headquartered in Houston, Texas, has agreed to establish lower emissions levels at its carbon black manufacturing facilities in Phenix City, Alabama; Ponca City, Oklahoma; and Sunray, Texas. The company will install additional air quality control equipment in stages at each of these facilities during the next six years.
This initiative is the result of diligent and cooperative efforts with the USEPA during the past several years as part of its national enforcement initiative aimed at reducing emissions from chemical and petrochemical sources.
In line with the proposed consent decree with the USEPA, Continental Carbon will also invest US$550,000 on environmental mitigation projects at the facilities and in the surrounding communities. The investments will include energy efficiency projects that will also provide pollutant reduction benefits.
Although Continental Carbon has always maintained full compliance with all requirements, to resolve this matter, it has agreed to pay a total of $650,000 in civil penalties under this settlement.
March 31, 2015
