Hawaii: EPA settles Clean Air Violation with Mid Pac Petroleum
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has announced a settlement valued at more than $600,000 with Mid Pac Petroleum, resolving federal Clean Air Act violations at the company’s Kawaihae facility on the Island of Hawaii.
EPA claimed that for more than a decade Mid Pac Petroleum failed to install required vapor pollution controls and comply with a volatile organic compound (VOC) pollution limit at its gasoline storage facility.
Failure to limit these emissions led to the illegal discharge of about 20 tons of VOCs into the air each year from its gasoline loading equipment. Mid Pac Petroleum will now spend an estimated $432,000 to bring its facility into compliance with the law, and has agreed to pay a $200,000 civil penalty.
"This is EPA's second settlement in the past year that will improve air quality on the Island of Hawaii,” said Alexis Strauss, EPA's Acting Regional Administrator for the Pacific Southwest. "As with Aloha Petroleum’s facility in Hilo, we are requiring Mid Pac Petroleum to install air pollution controls, cutting health risks to local residents."
Mid Pac Petroleum is the owner of the 76-brand gas stations in the Islands. The company will “cooperate fully with the EPA in the matter,” said Jim Yates, president of Mid Pac Petroleum.
