EPA settles with Alto Ingredients over Clean Air Act violations at two facilities

In Washington, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced settlements with ethanol producer Alto Ingredients to resolve alleged violations of the Clean Air Act at two of its facilities, Alto Pekin LLC and Alto ICP LLC, in Pekin, Illinois. Under the terms of the settlements, Pekin will pay a penalty of $308,374 and ICP will pay a penalty of $193,516.

EPA alleged that the Alto Pekin and ICP facilities violated the national emission standards for hazardous air pollutants for miscellaneous organic chemical manufacturing and other conditions of permits issued by Illinois EPA. The Pekin facility failed to demonstrate compliance with the standards at its three fiber dryers, failed to maintain compliant operating parameters at two CO2 scrubbers, and failed to control emissions generated at fermentation tanks.

EPA alleged the ICP facility failed to demonstrate continuous compliance with temperature setpoints at two of its dryers, failed to maintain records of corrective actions, and failed to report deviations of temperature setpoints. ICP ceased production of fuel-grade ethanol in July 2020 and currently only produces beverage-grade ethanol. As a result, ICP is no longer subject to the standards for miscellaneous organic chemical manufacturing.

As part of the settlement, Pekin is required to modify the maximum allowable pressure drop at a CO2 scrubber to eliminate emission bypass events. It will also submit a new notice of compliance status to Illinois EPA documenting a new and larger portion of the facility as being subject to the requirements of the standards for miscellaneous organic chemical manufacturing.