Mosaic Fertilizer will spend $30 million on air pollution controls to eliminate harmful emissions from sulfuric acid production plants in Uncle Sam, La., and Mulberry, Fla., according to the Justice Department and U.S. EPA.
The company will also pay a civil penalty of $2.4 million to resolve alleged Clean Air Act violations.
Mosaic will install modern pollution control equipment, upgrade existing controls, and make multiple modifications to its operating procedures to meet new, lower sulfur dioxide emission limits at its Uncle Sam facility. In addition, Mosaic agreed that it will permanently cease sulfuric acid production at its Mulberry sulfuric acid plant.
A settlement agreement filed Oct. 5 in federal court in New Orleans outlines the terms.
The government’s complaint, filed concurrently with the consent decree, accused Mosaic of modifying its Uncle Sam facility and increasing emissions of sulfur dioxide without first obtaining pre-construction permits and installing required pollution control equipment. The Clean Air Act requires major sources of air pollution to obtain such permits. The government discovered the modifications through a request for information to the company.
Mosaic produces sulfuric acid and combines it with phosphate rock to produce phosphoric acid, which in turn is combined with ammonia to produce fertilizer.
The government has posted information on the Mosaic settlement at www.epa.gov
