Timet fined $430,000

Launce Rake and Erin Neff

Friday, Dec. 17, 1999 | 11:46 a.m.

The Environmental Protection Agency, the Justice Department and the U.S. Attorney's Office today announced that Titanium Metals Corp. has agreed to pay a $430,000 penalty to settle Clean Air Act violations at the firm's Henderson plant.

From 1992 to 1998 the titanium-ingot producing plant emitted up to 360 tons of sulfur dioxide per year, about four times its permit limit. Sulfur dioxide at low levels can cause acid rain and contribute to smog; at higher levels it can lead to respiratory problems.

Last year the company, known as Timet, installed pollution controls that reduce the level of sulfur dioxide emissions. Under the agreement with the federal agencies, Timet also will reduce emissions of carbon monoxide and other pollutants.

"The negative impact of sulfur dioxide on people and our environment is a major concern for us," said David Howekamp, EPA director for the western regional air division. "In addition to the obvious health concerns ... Timet's sulfur dioxide emissions may be contributing to the regional haze that is obscuring visibility at national parks and wilderness areas in the Southwest."

"Air pollution issues are a significant concern in the Las Vegas Valley," said U.S. Attorney Kathryn E. Landreth. "This consent decree helps to address that concern by requiring Timet to install better pollution-control equipment so that we all have cleaner air to breathe."

In August 1998 environmental groups expressed outrage after the Air Pollution control Hearing Board, an agency of the Clark County Health District, approved a plan that allowed Timet to emit more than 5 pounds of pollutants per hour into the atmosphere through the end of 1998.

At that time the EPA said it was investigating the company, and agency representatives pointed out that the federal government does not recognize local variances allowing more pollution.

The increased allowance followed an explosion Aug. 4, 1998, that destroyed some of the company's air-pollution control equipment.

The company has a record of piling up local and federal fines.

The company is permitted by the regional health district to release air pollutants. In 1996 the health district fined Timet $5,000 for sulfur dioxide releases.

That same year Timet was fined $125,000 for an accident that killed a company worker a year earlier.

Michael Naylor, air pollution control director for the Clark County Health District, said his agency is not to blame for air pollution excesses at the Timet plant.

"The only thing that EPA did in stepping in was get a larger penalty," he said.

Timet representatives did not immediately return phone calls.

Sun reporter Mary Manning contributed to this story.