Firestone Polymers settles environmental claims at Sulphur rubber plant

Chuck Carr Brown, secretary, LDEQ. Photo by Don Kadair.

Firestone Polymers LLC has agreed to resolve alleged violations of the Clean Air Act and several other federal and state environmental laws at the company’s synthetic rubber manufacturing facility in Sulphur, according to a Department of Justice press release. The company will also pay a total of $3.35 million in civil penalties.

The Department of Justice, on behalf of the Louisiana Department of Environmental Quality (LDEQ) and the EPA, filed a complaint in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Louisiana alleging that the facility emitted excess amounts of pollutants including nitrogen oxide, carbon monoxide, volatile organic compounds, particulate matter, sulfur dioxide and other hazardous air pollutants.

The settlement requires several actions from Firestone, including meeting emissions limits, operating and maintenance requirements, equipment controls, limiting hazardous air pollutants from facility dryers, conducting inspections of heat exchangers, installing controls and monitors on covered flares and installing flaring instrumentation and monitoring systems. Read the entire release.