PHILADELPHIA – Allentown-based Lehigh Cement is facing a suit filed by eight states, the federal government and others alleging violations of the Clean Air Act at its manufacturing plants.
United States of America and the states of Indiana, Iowa, Maryland and New York, Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection and others filed a complaint Dec. 3 in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania against Lehigh Cement Co. LLC and Lehigh White Cement Co. LLC alleging violation of the Clean Air Act.
According to their suit, the plaintiffs seek an injunction against Lehigh to "substantially reduce, and mitigate past excess emissions of, their emissions of sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxides by undertaking remedial measures and operational improvements at their Portland cement manufacturing plants."
The suit states the Environmental Protection Agency investigated the defendants' plants and that since the plants' initial construction, modifications were made that resulted in a "significant net emissions increase" of sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxides.
The plaintiffs seek monetary, as well as injunctive and all other just relief. They are represented by Catherine Banerjee Rojko and Andrew Ingersoll of the Environmental Enforcement Section of the Environmental and Natural Resources Division of the U.S. Department of Justice in Washington, D.C. and others.
U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania case number 5:19-cv-05688-JFL