04/29/2001

Monaco plant repeatedly fined for air violations

LRAPA: The company has paid more than $56,000 to settle complaints over permit problems.

By CHRISTIAN WIHTOL
Register-Guard Business Editor

COBURG - When it comes to making RVs, Monaco Coach Corp. is world class.

But when it comes to obeying federal air pollution laws, the company
earns a lower rating.

In the past two years, Monaco has paid $56,647 in fines to settle complaints by the Lane Regional Air Pollution Authority over air toxics violations at the company's Coburg plant.

The violations have involved everything from Monaco's failure to apply for an air pollution permit when it opened the factory in 1995, to the factory's use over a period of 3 1/2 years of laquers and glues that contained excessive amounts of volatile hazardous chemicals.

The violations are "primarily a matter of sloppiness and carelessness," said Brian Jennison, LRAPA's director.

In settling the complaint over the failure to apply for an air permit to build and start up the factory, Monaco admitted that its environmental program at the time was "relatively unsophisticated."

In a written response to questions from The Register-Guard, the company says: "Monaco believes that it has done a good job of complying with the complex regulations that apply to it. Monaco is currently in compliance with all regulatory requirements."

Monaco isn't the only local RV maker that has been fined for violations.

In the past several months, Country Coach has paid LRAPA fines totaling $12,841 to settle two complaints - one that the company sharply increased chemical fume emissions from its Junction City complex but failed to apply for a required federal permit, and the other that the company's training plan for chemical users in its wood shop was deficient.

And SMC Corp. in 1995 was fined $19,642 for greatly increasing fume emissions at its Harrisburg RV factory without applying for a permit.

Among the RV makers, Monaco has had the longest-running disputes with regulators. Here's an overview, based on LRAPA's files:

In the early 1990s, Monaco was a small company operating in Junction City. As demand for RVs burgeoned, Monaco built a 300,000-square-foot factory for itself in Coburg. In July 1995, Monaco moved in and busily boosted production.

The fumes - more than 52 tons in 1996 alone, and increasing rapidly thereafter - ranked the plant as a "major source" of air pollution under federal law. In an application for a permit to build and run the factory, Monaco would have had to explain which chemicals it was going to use, how it would obey emissions rules and how it would minimize chemical fumes.

Yet, Monaco executives didn't apply.

In February 1996, an LRAPA inspector visited the factory and directed the company to apply. After reviewing Monaco's application and haggling for years, LRAPA in 1999 proposed a $20,947 fine. The sides settled on $13,747.

But LRAPA spotted other violations.

Monaco does much gluing and lacquering of cabinets and other woodwork for
coaches. The company vents the fumes into the air. Under federal rules
aimed at curbing such emissions, companies that do large volumes of woodwork
must use compounds that have limited percentages of volatile hazardous
chemicals. Also under federal rules, the companies must submit semiannual
chemical use reports for the shops.

In a surprise inspection at Monaco in May 2000, LRAPA says, it reviewed
Monaco's wood shop and determined that Monaco should have been submitting
those reports since 1995, but hadn't. When Monaco later submitted the reports, they revealed that the company had been using coatings and glues that exceeded the content limits, LRAPA says. Monaco earlier this year paid
$35,700 for the violations.

Also during that May visit, LRAPA says it reviewed Monaco's training and
work manuals for employees in the wood shop who handle fume-generating
chemicals. LRAPA said the instructions were deficient and proposed a
$5,400 fine. Monaco paid it.

And last August, LRAPA paid another surprise visit, checking records that
LRAPA says Monaco is supposed to have readily on hand concerning pollution
emissions; hazardous chemical content of paints, laquers and solvents;
and inspections of filters to catch particulate emissions.

LRAPA says the records were difficult to review because they were
incomplete and inconveniently scattered among various locations. The
agency proposed a $5,700 fine. Monaco settled by paying $1,800.