EPA Reaches Over $200,000 Settlement with The Andersons

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced a $209,241 settlement with The Andersons Marathon Holdings LLC (Andersons Marathon) facility in Denison, Iowa. This is part of a broader settlement totaling over $1.7 million.

The $1,731,256 million settlement with Andersons Marathon is to resolve an alleged 131 Toxics Release Inventory (TRI) reporting violations of the Emergency Planning and Community Right-to-Know Act (EPCRA) at four facilities in Indiana, Iowa, Michigan, and Ohio. This is the largest EPCRA TRI penalty ever obtained by EPA.

All four facilities are located in vulnerable or overburdened communities and the settlement advances the Biden administration's commitment to deliver environmental justice.

EPA's Region 7 and Region 5 offices coordinated their investigations of Andersons Marathon's failure to file, failure to file timely, and failure to file accurate annual EPCRA TRI Forms for several chemicals from its fermentation vapor stream.

"EPA is committed to protecting people from pollution and taking action to ensure facilities are reporting releases in an accurate and timely fashion as required by law," said Acting Assistant Administrator Larry Starfield, EPA Office of Enforcement and Compliance Assurance. "This settlement ensures the communities surrounding the four facilities have the best available information that they deserve and empowers them to act at a local level when necessary."

The company has agreed to pay the total penalty of $1,731,256 between two Consent Agreements and Final Orders (CAFO).

Andersons Marathon manufactures ethanol at four facilities located in:

• Logansport, Indiana
• Denison, Iowa
• Albion, Michigan
• Greenville, Ohio

Region 5's action resolves 99 violations and assess a $1,522,015 civil penalty, and Region 7's action resolves 32 violations and assess a $209,241 civil penalty. Andersons Marathon has since filed its 2015-2020 EPCRA Toxic Chemical Release Forms and corrected its 2015-2020 data quality errors for chemicals including benzene, ethylbenzene, and toluene and the chemicals discussed below.

EPA and Andersons Marathon also agreed as to how the company will report its future manufacture, process, or other use of fermentation chemicals (acetaldehyde, methanol, acrolein, formaldehyde, and formic acid). As a result of the action and for future reporting, Andersons Marathon has adjusted measurements and releases of n-hexane and ammonia at its facilities.

EPCRA increases the public's knowledge and access to information about chemicals at individual facilities, their uses, and releases into the environment. States and communities, working with facilities, can use the information to improve chemical safety and protect public health and the environment.