Air Enforcement: Arkansas Department of Energy & Environment - Division of Environmental Quality and Springdale Plastic/Wood Composite Building Products Facility Enter into Consent Administrative Order

The Arkansas Department of Energy & Environment – Division of Environmental Quality (“DEQ”) and Moistureshield, Inc. (“Moistureshield”) entered into a December 6th Consent Administrative Order (“CAO”) addressing alleged violations of an air permit and Arkansas Pollution Control & Ecology Commission (“APC&EC”) Rule 18. See LIS No. 22-116.

The CAO provides that Moistureshield owns and operates a plastic and wood composite building products facility (“Facility”) in Springdale, Arkansas. Personnel from DEQ’s Office of Water Quality are stated to have conducted on April 1st an inspection of the Moistureshield Facility. The Office of Water Quality is stated to have submitted a complaint to DEQ’s Office of Air Quality stating that the Facility possibly needed an air operating permit due to the potential emissions from the Facility. Personnel from DEQ’s Office of Air Quality are stated to have conducted an investigation on April 6th.

The Moistureshield Facility was stated to have been determined to be conducting painting and coating operations at the Facility without first obtaining a permit from DEQ. The emissions from the painting and coating operations were stated to be routed to a Regenerative Thermal Oxidizer.  Facility personnel are stated to have estimated that the painting and coating activities had been in operation since 2018, violating APC&EC Rule 18.301(A).

Moistureshield submitted a permit application to DEQ on May 25th for coverage under a Minor Source Air Operating Permit. A subsequently submitted permit application was deemed administratively complete on November 14th.

Moistureshield neither admits nor denies the factual and legal allegations contained in the CAO.

A civil penalty of $10,560 is assessed which could have been reduced to $5,280 if the CAO was signed and returned to DEQ by December 6th.

A copy of the CAO can be downloaded here.