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PAVING COMPANY TO PAY $12,000 TO SETTLE AIR POLLUTION VIOLATIONS

Release Date: 2/15/2002
Contact Information: Wendy L. Chavez, U.S. EPA, 415/947-4248, chavez.wendy@epa.gov

     SAN FRANCISCO -- Today the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency announced a $12,000 settlement with Prescott-based Fann Contracting, Inc. for air pollution violations at its portable asphalt plant in Kayenta, Ariz.

    A violation of the federal Clean Air Act, the company exceeded the allowable limit for smokestack emissions by more than 200 percent while operating on the Navajo Nation.  The violation was discovered during an inspection in September 2000 by the Navajo Nation Environmental Protection Agency and the Arizona Department of Environmental Quality.

     "Smokestack emissions released into the air can have serious impacts on the public's health," said Jack Broadbent, the EPA's Air Division director for the Pacific Southwest office. "This settlement is a good example of how closely the EPA works with the Navajo Nation EPA and the ADEQ to enforce the Clean Air Act requirements to protect air quality on the Navajo Nation."
 
     Under the Clean Air Act, hot mix asphalt facilities are prohibited from discharging or causing the discharge of gases into the environment above 20 percent opacity.  Fann Contracting discharged 65 percent opacity through the smokestack.  The regulation requires the owner or operator of a hot mix asphalt facility to visually determine the opacity of emissions.  As part of the settlement, Fann Contracting neither admitted nor denied liability for the alleged violation.

     Frequent monitoring of the opacity of smokestack emissions prevents excess emissions of particulates that can penetrate deep into lungs and cause respiratory problems, ranging from short-term coughs and wheezing to serious diseases such as emphysema.