Region 5 of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (U.S EPA) recently entered into an Administrative Consent Order (ACO) with The DeLong Company Inc. (DeLong), of Clinton, WI, to ensure compliance with the Illinois Standard Implementation Plan (SIP) regulations at its Channahon, IL grain elevator. The Illinois SIP requires grain elevators in major population areas with grain throughput greater than 2 million bushels per year to collect air contaminants from the internal transferring area and convey them through air pollution control equipment with a particulate removal efficiency of 98%. In order to meet this regulation, the ACO requires DeLong to enclose the conveyors in the internal transferring area and send the particulates to a filtering system or a baghouse with a minimum of 98% removal efficiency within one year of the date the order is entered.
The IL SIP also requires grain elevator owners to control the dust from roads at their facilities by asphalting, oiling, or equivalently treating them. The ACO requires DeLong to wet their roads twice per day, except when precipitation is on the ground, and submit monthly reports to U.S. EPA documenting the watering.