Austin, Texas — A federal court in Lufkin, Texas, on Friday, 1/28, approved a settlement agreement resolving Sierra Club’s Clean Air Act citizen suit against an east Texas wood pellet manufacturing facility alleging numerous, ongoing air pollution violations. The consent decree requires the facility’s owner, Woodville Pellets (a subsidiary of Estonia-based Graanul Invest) to install new pollution controls that will eliminate hundreds of tons of air pollution annually. In addition, the consent decree requires the company to contribute nearly $500,000 to fund weatherization upgrades for homes and community buildings in east Texas, reducing energy costs, saving energy and thereby further reducing air pollution in the area.
The facility in Woodville, Texas, 90 miles northeast of Houston, manufactures biomass fuel pellets that are shipped abroad to be burned in power plants. Climate scientists have long argued such practices are detrimental to the climate, but Sierra Club’s lawsuit focused on enforcing the Clean Air Act and requiring the Woodville plant to reduce the amount of air pollution released into the local community.
In August of 2020, Sierra Club sued Woodville Pellets, LLC, in the federal District Court for the Eastern District of Texas, alleging numerous and significant violations of the Clean Air Act at the Tyler County wood pellet plant. Sierra Club ultimately alleged more than 20,000 individual violations that released hundreds of tons of illegal air pollution stemming from the plant owner’s delay in installing new air pollution controls and operating without a required permit.
Patrick Anderson, an attorney with the Environmental Integrity Project representing Sierra Club in the lawsuit, explained: “We have been working with Woodville residents, the state, and the legal tools available to reduce this unlawful air pollution since 2017. This settlement is the most significant milestone yet and will greatly reduce air pollution in the Woodville community.”
The wide-ranging settlement addresses many types of air pollution released from the facility. First, the settlement establishes a deadline in May of 2022 for Woodville to install new air pollution control technology to reduce emissions of smog-forming volatile organic compounds (“VOCs”) and “hazardous air pollutants” that are known to be toxic or carcinogenic even in small quantities. The new controls will reduce these emissions by at least 95%.
Second, the settlement requires that any time the facility bypasses existing air pollution controls, the company must pay a penalty based on the quantity of emissions released. These so-called “bypass events,” which often send smoke and fine particulate matter into the air, have resulted in numerous complaints from neighbors.
Third, the settlement, requires Woodville to pay a penalty of $683,000 for past violations. In combination with a parallel enforcement action brought by state regulators in response to Sierra Club’s advocacy campaign, Woodville will pay more than $1 million in penalties to resolve allegations of illegal air pollution.
Of Woodville’s penalty payments, the parties have agreed that Woodville will direct $483,000 to the Greater East Texas Community Action Program (“GET-CAP”) to establish a program to weatherize low and middle-income homes and public buildings in Tyler County. As explained by GET-CAP’s Executive Director, Karen Swenson, “GET-CAP has served low-income households in Tyler County with the federal Dept of Energy Weatherization Program for many years. We are delighted to have the opportunity to utilize additional funding from this settlement to enhance the current program as well as serve those who are just over the income guideline.” Households interested in GET-CAP’s service may apply at www.get-cap.org, or call 936-585-7224.
The settlement further requires the facility to take new steps to ensure transparency and bolster community engagement, including quarterly public meetings to discuss the facility’s operations and community concerns, a 24-hour telephone hotline open to the community, and agreeing to additional reporting, recordkeeping, and monitoring requirements to assure future compliance.
“The Lone Star Chapter of the Sierra Club fights to protect Texans from this type of illegal and harmful pollution,” said Neil Carman, Clean Air Director, Lone Star Chapter of the Sierra Club, “and we are grateful to see this matter resolved with real benefits to folks who have been impacted by these emissions.”
Sierra Club is represented in the lawsuit by Patrick Anderson and Keri Powell of Environmental Integrity Project, Kelly Haragan of the Environmental Clinic of the University of Texas Law School, and independent public interest attorneys George Hays, Reed Zars, and Naomi Melver.
Media contacts:
Tom Pelton, Environmental Integrity Project, (202) 888-2703 or tpelton@environmentalintegrity.org
Matthew Johnson, Lone Star Chapter of the Sierra Club, matt.johnson@sierraclub.org or 512-888-9398.
