The Environmental Protection Agency said Wednesday it reached an agreement with Archer Daniels Midland on alleged clean-air violations at the company's grain processing plant in Decatur, Ill., including two environmental projects totaling $1.02 million and a $325,000 penalty.
The agreement resolves EPA allegations that ADM violated federal hazardous air pollutant regulations for pharmaceutical manufacturing at its vitamin E production facility by failing to do equipment testing, monitoring and reporting. The EPA said ADM also violated rules to protect stratospheric ozone by, among other things, failing to track leaks of chlorofluorocarbon refrigerant from chillers at the facility.
The EPA discovered some of the alleged violations during an inspection of the plant last December, and ADM disclosed other potential violations after the inspection.
For its first environmental project, ADM must install 58 seal-less pumps and 15 seal-less agitators at the Decatur vitamin E manufacturing facility, and also needs to undertake an enhanced leak detection and repair project at the facility. The two projects are designed to reduce fugitive emissions of hazardous air pollutants from the facility. Fugitive emissions are releases not caught by an air pollution control system.