The United States and American Seafoods Company LLC and Pacific Longline Company LLC (Defendants) have signed a consent decree settling violations of the Clean Air Act arising out of Defendants inadequate management of ozone depleting substances (ODS). On June 14, 2012, the proposed consent decree was lodged in the federal district court for the Western District of Washington. Notice of the lodging was published in the Federal Register on June 28, 2012, and public comments on the decree will be accepted for thirty days.
Defendants American Seafoods Company LLC and Pacific Longline Company LLC, two affiliated seafood processing companies used R-22, a regulated ODS, as a refrigerant in their industrial process refrigeration units aboard their catcher-processer vessels in order to produce frozen seafood products. Between 2006 and 2009, Defendants committed the following violations of Title VI requirements: illegal importation of ODS to the U.S., failures to repair ODS leaks from regulated appliances within specified timeframes, failures to verify the adequacy of repairs, failures to keep records of regulated activities, and performance of ODS-related work by uncertified employees.
This settlement represents Region 10�s largest civil penalty to-date for enforcement of CAA Title VI requirements. In addition to paying a $700,000 civil penalty, American will spend an estimated $9 to $15 million to convert the industrial refrigeration systems on its vessels to non-ozone