Paper Mill, U.S. At Odds Over How To Resolve Pollution Case
BALTIMORE (AP) -- The Justice Department and the former owner of a western Maryland paper mill are fighting over how to resolve an air-pollution case.
Court documents were released Monday in the case involving the Luke Mill in Allegany County.
A federal judge in Baltimore found in February that the mill exceeded its pollution allowances for 30 years. He proposed that former owner MeadWestvaco Corp. buy and retire emission credits to remedy the harm.
MeadWestvaco says it should have to mitigate only a fraction of the nearly 11,000 tons of excess pollutants emitted from 1984 to 2005. That's when the Richmond, Virginia-based company sold the mill.
The government says the court's proposal falls short of an acceptable remedy.
The mill is now owned by Verso Corp. of Memphis, Tennessee.
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