Ohio levies $25,900 anhydrous fine

Columbus, Ohio-The Ohio Environmental Protection Agency has assessed a $25,900 civil penalty to Eaton Aeroquip Inc. for violating risk management plan requirements involving storage of more than 10,000 pounds of anhydrous ammonia at its Van Wert facility. According to state authorities, the company submitted risk plans as required in 1999, 2004, and 2009, but an inspection in 2004 found nine violations, which were corrected, and in 2009 seven violations ?Çô including four that had been cited in 2004. The company resolved most of the violations by November 2009 and notified Ohio EPA and U.S. EPA that anhydrous ammonia would be permanently removed from the site. Eaton Aeroquip, which produces industrial equipment and parts for trucking companies and agricultural industries, will pay $20,720 to Ohio EPA’s risk management plan fund and the remaining $5,180 to the agency’s clean diesel school bus program. Also, the Sousa Corp. of West Hartford, Conn., has agreed to pay $8,014 to settle claims by U.S. EPA that it failed to file a required chemical inventory report in 2007 with local, state, and emergency officials on anhydrous ammonia and quench oil, which were present above the threshold for reporting.