Asphalt Cutbacks, Inc. (A.C.I.) owns and operates an industrial asphalt and industrial cutback manufacturing facility at 3000 Gary Avenue, East Chicago, Indiana. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency issued a Notice and Finding of Violation to A.C.I. on December 15, 2011 for violating the Indiana State Implementation Plan; Section 111(e) and 502(a) of the Clean Air Act, 42 U.S.C. §§ 7411(e) and 7661a(a); its federally enforceable state operating permit (FESOP); and the Standards of Performance for Asphalt Processing and Asphalt Roofing Manufacture at 40 C.F.R. Part 60, Subpart UU (Subpart UU). Specifically, A.C.I. failed to account for all potential emissions of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) when it applied for its FESOP, and exceeded the opacity limit of its FESOP and Subpart UU. The EPA discovered these violations through an inspection it conducted on May 6, 2010.
The EPA is issuing the Administrative Penalty Order concurrently with this Consent Agreement and Final Order (CAFO). The potential emissions in question are not illegal, and A.C.I. is under no obligation to control them; A.C.I. just needs to account for them in its FESOP application. Nonetheless, A.C.I. reduced emissions from the preheating stage of its asphalt-blowing process by changing its operations to cease charging the process tanks during periods when its thermal oxidizers are still hot from use (the thermal oxidizers are idle when the processes are in the preheating stage). A.C.I. demonst