2/24/11 - The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and Commonwealth of Kentucky have settled an enforcement action against a Kentucky-based manufacturer of polyvinyl chloride and related chemicals. The Consent Decree resolves claims alleged in a complaint filed in September 2010 and was entered on February 23, 2011, in the U.S. District Court Western District of KY, in Paducah.
EPA?s complaint alleged that Westlake Vinyls violated the Clean Air Act; the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act; the Clean Water Act; the Emergency Planning and Community Right-to-Know Act; and the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act as a result of emissions and releases of benzene and vinyl chloride and related chemicals at two facilities.
Westlake Vinyls, Inc. operates a facility in Calvert City, KY that manufactures synthetic organic chemicals, and makes as a product or a co-product vinyl chloride, butadiene, benzene and ethylene dichloride. Westlake PVC Corporation makes poly vinyl chloride at a nearby facility that is connected to Westlake Vinyls, Inc. by a pipe.
Westlake Vinyls agreed to pay a civil penalty of $800,000, of which $687,500.00 will be apportioned to EPA, $12,500 to the Oil Spill Liability Trust Fund, and the remaining $100,000 to the Commonwealth of Kentucky. EPA estimates that there will be a substantial reduction in air pollutant emissions under the terms of the Consent Decree.
The settlement requires Westlake Vinyls to monitor and