Monaco fined $7,102 for air quality violations.

Byline: AIR QUALITY By Tim Christie The Register-Guard

Monaco Coach Corp. has appealed a $7,102 fine imposed by state regulators for violations of air quality rules at its Harrisburg plant.

The state Department of Environment Quality said Tuesday that Monaco, a Coburg-based RV manufacturer, violated its air quality permit at its plant at 30725 Diamond Hill Road. The company used thinners in its wood furniture finishing operations that contained excessive levels of volatile hazardous air pollutants, the DEQ said.

According to the DEQ, Monaco is permitted to use thinners that contain no more than 10 percent volatile hazardous air pollutants by weight. But in its semiannual compliance report that Monaco sent to the state last August, the company said that from Jan. 13, 2006, to March 22, 2006, it used thinners that contained 26 percent volatile hazardous air pollutants by weight.

Monaco's air quality permit requires it to report such changes within seven days, but the company waited until August to notify the state, the DEQ said. In addition, the company filed its semiannual compliance report 10 days after the July 30 deadline, the agency said.

DEQ imposed the $7,102 fine May 29. In a June 8 letter to the agency, Kurt Anderson, Monaco's environmental health and safety director, requested that the fine be reduced to $5,300.

Anderson said Monaco doesn't deny the violation, but asked DEQ to consider the company's programs and efforts to prevent such violations.

For example, Monaco works to educate its chemical vendors and its employees about using materials that comply with environmental rules, Anderson said. The company's compliance review process did catch the problem and stopped the use of the noncompliant thinner, he said.

"And even though we had employees and a supplier that failed us, I don't think Monaco was negligent," Anderson wrote.

"Monaco provided training, established proper protocols and communicated with our suppliers what our compliance requirements were.

"Beyond these primary efforts, Monaco established an encompassing compliance review program to identify any compliance breaches. I don't believe that represents negligence."