ADM Settles With EPA

NEW YORK - Oct 5/06 - SNS -- Archer Daniels Midland Co. will pay an estimated $1.345 million to upgrade its grain processing plant at 4666 Faries Parkway, Decatur, Ill. under a settlement reached with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Region 5.

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. 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. 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 at a cost of at least $1,005,000. ADM must also spend at least $15,000 on 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.

Exposure to hazardous air pollutants may cause serious health effects, including birth defects and cancer. They may also cause harmful environmental and ecological effects.

When CFC refrigerants deplete the stratospheric ozone layer, dangerous amounts of cancer-causing ultraviolet rays from the sun strike the earth. Production of some of these chemicals was stopped in 1995, and federal law strictly controls their use and handling.