EPA settles with Andersons Marathon for $1.7M fine regarding toxics violations

In Washington, the US Environmental Protection Agency announced a $1.7 million settlement with The Andersons Marathon Holdings (Andersons Marathon) LLC to resolve alleged Toxics Release Inventory (TRI) reporting violations of the Emergency Planning and Community Right-to-Know Act (EPCRA) at four facilities in Indiana, Iowa, Michigan, and Ohio. EPA’s Region 7 and Region 5 offices coordinated their investigations of Andersons Marathon’s failure to file, failure to file timely, and failure to file accurate annual EPCRA TRI Forms for several chemicals from its fermentation vapor stream.

The company has agreed to pay a total penalty of $1,731,256 between two Consent Agreements and Final Orders (CAFO), the largest EPCRA TRI penalty ever obtained by the Agency. 

Andersons Marathon manufactures ethanol at four facilities located in:

Logansport, Indiana

Albion, Michigan 

Greenville, Ohio

Denison, Iowa

Region 5’s action resolves 99 violations and assess a $1,522,015 civil penalty and Region 7’s action resolves 32 violations and assess a $209,241 civil penalty. Andersons Marathon has since filed its 2015 – 2020 EPCRA Toxic Chemical Release Forms and corrected its 2015 – 2020 data quality errors for chemicals including benzene, ethylbenzene and toluene and the chemicals discussed below. EPA and Andersons Marathon also agreed as to how Andersons Marathon will report its future manufacture, process, or other use of fermentation chemicals (acetaldehyde, methanol, acrolein, formaldehyde and formic acid). As a result of the action and for future reporting, Andersons Marathon has adjusted measurements and releases of n-hexane and ammonia at its facilities.