Minnesota Pollution Control Agency

Media contact: Mark Sulzbach, 651-296-7768 Technical contact: Suzanne Venem, 651-297-7707 St. Paul Minn. -- The FilmTec Corporation of Edina, Minn., has paid a $16,000 penalty as part of an agreement to resolve an alleged air quality violation. FilmTec, a manufacturer of membranes used to filter water, should have obtained an air emission permit in 1998. At that time, FilmTec believed their emissions were low enough that they did not need one. However in 2003, as the company planned for an expansion, an analysis showed that emissions from the facility were great enough to require an air permit from the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency (MPCA). Subsequently, the company reported this discrepancy to the agency and applied for a permit in October of 2003. Facilities in Minnesota with air permits are required to pay an annual fee based on the amount of pollutants they emit each year. The FilmTec Corporation had never reported their annual emissions to the MPCA prior to August 2004, when they received a permit from the agency. FilmTec is a subsidiary of the Dow Chemical Company. Agreements such as these are one of the MPCA's many tools used to achieve compliance with environmental laws. When calculating penalties, the MPCA takes into account how seriously the violation affected the environment, whether it was a first time or repeat violation and how promptly the violation was reported to appropriate authorities. It also attempts to recover the calculated economic benefit gained by failure to comply with environmental laws in a timely manner. For a comprehensive list of enforcement actions by the MPCA, refer to the agency Web site at hhref="/newscenter/enforcement.html.