Georgia-Pacific Agrees to Air Pollution Cleanup in Southeastern States
7/18/96
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Title: Georgia-Pacific Agrees to Air Pollution Cleanup in Southeastern States
Source: United Press International
Status: Copyrighted, contact source for reprint permissions
Date: 7/18/96
Byline: Michael Kirkland
WASHINGTON, July 18 (UPI) -- One of the country's timber giants, the
Georgia-Pacific Corp., has agreed to spend more than $35 million to
settle a suit over air pollution at its wood-product factories in eight
Southeastern states, Attorney General Janet Reno announced Thursday.
``Today's case is unprecedented in respect to the number of
facilities involved,'' Reno said.
The new controls agreed to by Georgia-Pacific are expected to reduce
emissions by 10 million pounds a year, the Justice Department said. The
facilities affected are in Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia,
Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina and Virginia.
The attorney general was joined at her weekly news conference by
Carol Browner, the head of the Environmental Protection Agency, which
pursued the case with Justice Department help.
``Today's settlement will have a significant impact on public health
and our environment in communities in the immediate neighborhood of
Georgia-Pacific facilities, in areas hundreds of miles downwind of those
facilities and in our Southeastern states as a whole,'' Browner said.
Although it admitted no wrongdoing in the consent decree filed
Thursday in Atlanta, Georgia-Pacific will:
--pay a $6 million fine to the U.S. Treasury;
--spend $25 million installing state-of-the-art pollution control
devices at 11 of its wood-product facilities and obtain appropriate
state permits for all other facilities;
--spend $4.5 million on projects in the Southeast that will benefit
the environment;
--and conduct comprehensive clean air audits at all its wood-product
plants and pay stipulated penalties if it does not comply with emission
limits.
Reno praised the company for the agreement, which must be approved by
a federal judge.
``Georgia-Pacific has stepped up to the plate and is willing to do
the right thing,'' Reno said.
In a complaint filed jointly with the agreement in Atlanta, the
Justice Department alleged the company failed to obtain permits before
modifying 18 of its wood-processing facilities, as required by the Clean
Air Act.
The complaint also alleged on behalf of the EPA that the company did
not accurately report the amount of volatile organic compounds it
emitted into the air.
In addition, the complaint alleged that Georgia-Pacific failed to
install pollution control technology at 11 of its facilities in the
eight states.
The EPA now estimates that with the new controls in place, pollution
from the G-P facilities will be reduced ``significantly,'' Browner said,
as much as 90 percent at some facilities.
The Justice Department said in a statement that ozone-forming VOCs
can lead to breathing problems, reduced lung function, asthma, eye
irritation, reduced resistance to colds and other infections, and may
speed the aging of lung tissue, especially for the young, elderly and
people with respiratory problems.
The pollutants also damage plant life, reducing crop yields, the
department said.