On August 21, 2003, the Department of Justice and the Environmental Protection Agency entered into a landmark Clean Air Act settlement with Archer Daniels Midland Company (ADM), which covered operations at 52 plants in 16 states and cost the company an estimated $340 million. Three of these facilities are in Region 4 states, including Georgia, North Carolina and Tennessee. The settlement is the result of an unprecedented joint federal and state enforcement effort with 14 state and county entities signing onto the consent decree. Under the settlement, ADM will implement sweeping environmental improvements at plants nationwide that will eliminate at least 63,000 tons of air pollution a year.
ADM is a multi-national agribusiness based in Decatur, Ill., that owns and operates facilities across the nation which process corn, wheat, soybeans, and other oilseeds into value-added products used in the food, feed, ethanol and other industries. The manufacturing processes at ADM???s plants result in emissions of significant quantities of regulated air pollutants, including nitrogen oxides, carbon monoxide, particulate matter, sulfur dioxide, volatile organic compounds (VOCs) and hazardous air pollutants (HAPs).
Under the settlement, ADM will install state-of-the-art controls on a large number of units, shut down some of the oldest, dirtiest units, and take emission limits on others. Additionally, ADM???s oilseed operations will accept new, more stringent emission limits for VOC and