On September 30, 1998, Region III referred to the Department of Justice a case against St. Laurent Paper Products Corporation and Chesapeake Corporation (Defendants) for violations of the Clean Air Act and Virginia's plan for implementing federal clean air requirements. The referral described three categories of violations at a kraft pulp mill in West Point, Virginia, formerly operated by Chesapeake and presently owned and operated by St. Laurent.
First, the referral alleged that the Mill failed to obtain a Prevention of Significant Deterioration (PSD) permit designed to protect air quality in areas that attain national air standards. Evidence suggests that an expansion of capacity at the Mill between 1991 and 1995 increased emissions of sulfur dioxide (SO2) by amounts that would have required preconstruction permitting under PSD rules, including the application of best available control technology to the Mill to reduce SO2 emissions. While Defendants obtained minor source (non-PSD) permits claiming two sources of emissions reductions designed to offset increased emissions from the expansion of capacity (and thereby avoid PSD requirements), one reduction is not valid under PSD rules and the other was never implemented.
Second, the referral alleged that Defendants failed to comply with minor source permit conditions that (1) required the re-routing of gases to a control device prior to achieving a specified production level and (2) set emissions limits for total re