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A West Chester Twp. company will pay $87,000 for air pollution violations it committed in 2005.

According to a release from Ohio EPA, adhesive and automotive component maker Three Bond U.S.A. was fined for exceeding air pollution limits in 2005 at its West Chester Twp. facility.

Three Bond U.S.A. officials declined to comment for this story, but Hamilton County Department of Environmental Services compliance specialist Mike Ploetz said the company took steps to notify authorities about the violation when it occurred.

"It was an honest mistake," he said. "As soon as the company went into violation, they notified us it was going on."

The company had limits on the tonnage of emissions of the toxic solvents talulene and trichlorethylene, he said. The chemicals are used in a screw-coating process, and were emitted by the machines used at the facility.

To resolve the violation, Ploetz said Three Bond U.S.A. upgraded some of its machines to use less toxic solvents. Still, because the company's emissions were measured by a 12-month rolling average, he said it took until late 2005 and into 2006 for the company to return to compliant status.

"Those people were very cooperative," he said.

The company will pay fines to fund three Ohio EPA programs: $59,600 will go to support the agency's air pollution control programs, $10,000 will be used to conduct a pollution prevention study at the company's West Chester Twp. facility and $17,400 will go to support the Ohio EPA's clean diesel school bus program.

Contact this reporter at (513) 755-5127 or mcunningham@coxohio.com.