DEP fines Suddekor for emissions


Located at 82 Deer Park Drive, Suddekor LLC has 60 days as of June 20 to report back to the DEP. Reminder photo by Natasha Clark

By Natasha Clark

Reminder Assistant Editor

EAST LONGMEADOW Suddekor LLC has been penalized by the Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection for air quality violations.

Violations were found at Suddekor's East Longmeadow branch, located on 82 Deer Park Drive, during air emissions testing in September and December of 2005.

"We applied for an emission permit in the end of 2004 for our new facility in East Longmeadow and the numbers that we used were based on our experience from our plant in Germany," explained President and CEO of Suddekor LLC Andreas Gottzmann. "It worked out that we did not need a Title 5 permit to stay within range of DEP and EPA [guidelines]."

Gottzmann said that split the emission range into different numbers the annual volume of emissions and the hourly volume of emissions.

"We are still within the limits for the annual amount of emissions, but hourly emissions were slightly higher than what we anticipated," he said.

DEP spokesperson Eva Tor said it was an issue with Suddekor's equipment.

"They produce resin impregnated paper and they have coatings that the resin goes through and the byproduct of the process is a volatile organic contaminate. There's regulated limits on it ... [Suddekor] exceeded those limits," Tor said.

Gottzmann said that the raw materials used caused the emissions per hour to be higher. He said that he will work with the company's suppliers on the amount of methanol and formaldehyde in the raw materials.

He said if that still does not work, "then we will have to put different equipment in the air before it leaves the building."

Suddekor was fined $1,000 and will also contribute, as a Supplemental Environmental Project, $4,750 to the Pioneer Valley Planning Commission's Vehicle Recycling Program.

This is a way of providing a benefit to the community and, according to Tor, is the equivalent of community service.

Tor said Suddekor has 60 days, as of June 20, to make sure the operation lines are running without exceeding emissions standards.

Gottzmann assured that Suddekor was still within their annual emission limits.

"We're not polluting anything above and beyond what was allowed by the DEP. It is something specific that we need to take care of."

"We work very closely with the DEP and we want this solved as soon as possible. We all live and like the quality of life we have here and we want to keep it that way," he added.