AUBURN – A clogged air-filtering system at the Mid-Maine Waste Action Corp. incinerator will cost the company $14,000.
MMWAC failed an Oct. 19 air quality test in one of its bag houses, according to Kurt Tidd, enforcement and stack testing chief for the Maine Bureau of Air Quality.
Bags in the buildings filter the air at the MMWAC facility. According to its air emissions license, the company is allowed to have 22.88 micrograms of particulate matter, such as dust, for every cubic meter of air.
The facility registered 29.44 micrograms of particulate, according to the Oct. 19 test. It was told of the failure a month later and had the bags replaced. Tidd said MMWAC passed the same test on Dec. 1 and again on Dec. 8.
“These are not bags you can just go out and buy,” Tidd said. “You have to contract with someone to manufacture new ones. It appears they did a good job of getting the problem fixed before they were retested.”
The $14,000 fine was part of a negotiated agreement between MMWAC and the state. It was signed by the company’s executive director, Joseph Kazar, on June 21.
The state Board of Environmental Protection is scheduled to ratify the consent agreement at its board meeting this morning in Portland.
Kazar could not be reached for comment Wednesday.
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