Hammond businesses cited by EPA agrees to pay $1-million fine

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Updated: March 11, 2012 8:36AM

An Ohio company has agreed to pay the federal government $1.4 million after being sued for not reporting it made toxic chemicals at two of its plants, including one in Hammond.

According to a release from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, the government reached the agreement with Dover Chemical Corp. after the government sued the company in December in the U.S. District Court in Northern Ohio for not reporting that it created persistent, bioaccumulative and toxic chemicals (PBTs). The chemicals are known to cause health problems, such as affecting the nervous system and causing cancer, especially in children. The agreement will not be approved until after a 30-day public comment period.

The EPA said in an email that the Hammond facility, located at 3000 Sheffield Ave., has produced the PBTs since 1978 and had never reported that to the EPA. The department has evidence of one release of 10 pounds of PBTs through “fugitive air emissions” into the local environment in 2007, it said in the email.

The company, which stopped producing PBTs in August, has also agreed to notify the EPA any time before it produces similar chemicals in the future.

“Today’s action reinforces the need for chemical manufacturers to follow the law and protects Americans from chemicals that could be harmful to their health,” Cynthia Giles, assistant administrator for EPA’s Office of Enforcement and Compliance Assurance, said in an email.

Dover disputed in a press release that it had not informed the EPA in 1979 that it created the PBTs. However, Dover President Dwain Colvin said in the release that the agreement was in the best interest of everyone and that the company wanted to cooperate with the EPA being responsible toward the environment.

“We recognize and apologize for the stress the pendency of this dispute has imposed upon some of our customers, our community, our employees and our shareholders,’ Colvin said in the release. “Dover has made significant concession to resolve this dispute in a manner that, in our opinion, treated all affected parties as fairly as possible under the circumstances.”