Ohio officials are trying to help push through a change in a permit issue with the federal Environmental Protection Agency that will save production costs for an automotive composites supplier, and help keep a plant in Ohio.
Republican state Rep. Randy Gardner, state and local economic development officials and local and county executives hope to prompt the federal agency into a change that will help Continental Structural Plastics Inc. keep its North Baltimore, Ohio, plant open.
The issue, Gardner's office said, is with a paint emissions cleaning system that the federal government forces Troy, Mich.-based CSP to run. CSP did not respond to requests for comment. However, in local media reports, CSP officials said the company has installed other, less expensive, cleaning systems that eliminate emission issues without running the regenerative thermal oxidizer. But federal law requires that any facility with an RTO must run it.
Local reports listed the cost of running the RTO at $30,000-$50,000 per month. If CSP moves operations to another facility in Indiana, one without an RTO, it can eliminate those production costs. Gardner's office and other state and local officials want to cut through the red tape so CSP will stay put.
Continental molds and paints thermoset body panels for the Corvette and other cars at North Baltimore. It employs 220 at the site. The firm has not discussed specific plans for where it would move production in Indiana.
State environmental officials previously recommended eliminating that provision, Gardner's office said, but the federal agency has not signed off on that change.
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