Firm owes fines for Gresham plant, groups say

Environmentalists want Owens Corning to pay daily penalties for building without a pollution permit

Thursday, December 16, 2004

CATHERINE TREVISON

GRESHAM -- Three environmental groups are asking for up to $32,500 in daily penalties against Owens Corning Corp. for building an insulation plant in Gresham without getting a state pollution permit first.

Those daily penalties were triggered about five months ago, when Owens Corning started building its plant at 18456 N.E. Wilkes Road, the groups said in a legal notice they sent to the company Wednesday. The penalties should continue for each day that the company allows the building to remain in place without appropriate permits, they said.

The notice is a critical new maneuver in the federal lawsuit that the Northwest Environmental Defense Center, the Oregon Center for Environmental Health and the Sierra Club filed against Owens Corning earlier this month.

The groups first sued to stop construction of the plant when Owens Corning said it would emit more than 250 tons of HCFC 142-b, a greenhouse gas that also depletes the Earth's ozone layer. Under the federal Clean Air Act, such a plant would be a new major source of pollution and would have to prove that it was using the best pollution control available in order to get a permit, the lawsuit in U.S. District Court said.

Two weeks ago, Owens Corning agreed to suspend construction until it received a pollution permit. A few days later, the company told the state Department of Environmental Quality that new calculations showed it would emit less than 250 tons of the chemical. Therefore, it would not have to undergo the "best available control" analysis, the DEQ said.

But the notice sent by the environmental groups Wednesday said Owens Corning was violating a separate state rule that requires pre-construction permits for plants that emit more than 100 tons of pollution.

"It's a chess game," said David Paul, board president of the Oregon Center for Environmental Health, describing the new maneuver. By using the separate state 100-ton limit, "we say, 'Check,' again."

An Owens Corning spokesman could not be reached for comment late Wednesday.

HCFC 142-b is a potent greenhouse gas associated with global warming. Owens Corning now says the new plant would emit about 245 tons a year; that would have the same effect as 82,000 cars driving 12,000 miles a year, according to the DEQ.

HCFC 142-b also thins the stratospheric ozone layer. Scientists say a depleted ozone layer allows more ultraviolet radiation to reach the Earth, causing health problems such as cataracts and skin cancer. Under the federal Clean Air Act, manufacturers such as Owens Corning are supposed to find a substitute for HCFC 142-b before 2010.

The plant would use HCFC 142-b to blow bubbles in the foam it uses to make insulation. Owens Corning contends that insulation ultimately benefits the environment by preventing additional fossil fuels from being burned at power plants.

The environmental groups say that other companies are already making rigid foam insulation using technology that is less harmful to the environment.

The DEQ said this week that it would hold two more meetings on the pollution permit that Owens Corning has applied for.

An information meeting is set for 6:30 p.m. Jan. 5 in the "Town and Gown" room of Mt. Hood Community College. A public hearing is set for 6:30 p.m. Jan. 18 at the same location. The agency will take written comments until Jan. 24.

Catherine Trevison: 503-294-5971; ctrevison@news.oregonian.com