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Indiana Man Admits Falsifying Air Permit Application

Release Date: 09/17/2003
Contact Information:


Teresa Libera 202-564-7873 / teresa.libera@epa.gov

(09/17/03) John D. Littlehale, former Vice President for Manufacturing of the Multi-Color Corp., pled guilty on Sept. 8 to falsifying an application for a permit under the Clean Air Act (CAA). From about July 1997 to around January 1998, Multi-Color’s Scottsburg, Ind., operation illegally operated a rotogravure printing press. The press did not have an air pollution control device and it vented approximately 100 tons of pollutant-laden emissions directly into the atmosphere. The pollutants included volatile organic compounds, hazardous air pollutants and other chemicals contained in inks, solvents and adhesives. Venting these pollutants into the air can cause people who live near the plant and who have respiratory illnesses to suffer an increase in symptoms. At the time the pollutants were released, Littlehale had operational control over the Scottsburg operation and in December 1997 he certified that the involved press was not in operation when he applied for the CAA permit. The case was investigated by EPA’s Criminal Investigation Division and the case is being prosecuted by the Environmental Crimes Section of the U.S. Department of Justice in Washington, D.C.