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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE - May 11, 1999
99-099
CONTACT: Jani Gilbert, Public Information Manager, (509) 456-4464; pager, (509) 622-1289
OLYMPIA-Kaiser Aluminum & Chemical Corporation has received its fourth fine in three months from the state Department of Ecology (Ecology) for emitting unhealthy levels of air pollutants at its plant in Mead, Wash.
The latest penalty is for $37,000, bringing the total to $86,000.
Ecology fined Kaiser $4,600 in December 1998 for bypassing air-pollution control equipment on the plant’s new carbon furnace on 43 days between Nov. 10, 1997, and May 15, 1998. Bypassing the pollution-control equipment caused excess emissions of fluoride, dust and soot.
Ecology again fined the company $19,600 for bypassing the equipment 49 times in 29 days between May 15, 1998, and Sept. 2, 1998.
In March 1999, Ecology issued another penalty for $24,800, after an emissions test revealed excess emissions of particulates. Kaiser emitted an average of 15.9 pounds of particulates per ton of aluminum it produced in October 1998, which exceeded the limit of 15 pounds per ton of aluminum set by state air-quality regulations.
This week’s $37,000 penalty is for again violating the particulate limit, this time in January 1999. Kaiser emitted an average of 15.4 pounds of particulate matter per ton of aluminum produced that month.
"We understand that Kaiser’s ongoing labor dispute has an effect on the work force, but the company has a responsibility to keep those labor problems from harming the environment," said Cullen Stephenson, who manages Ecology’s industrial section.
The Kaiser Aluminum & Chemical Corp. plant in Tacoma also was fined $37,200 last month for similar air-quality violations, including excess emissions of particulate matter.
The small particles have the ability to bypass the human body’s defenses and can lodge in sensitive lung tissue, causing structural and chemical changes. Often, toxic and cancer-causing chemicals "hitchhike" onto these particles into the lungs.
Copyright © Washington State Department of Ecology. See http://www.ecy.wa.gov/copyright.html.
