Boehringer Ingelheim Vetmedica has agreed to pay a $300,000 civil penalty to settle a series of alleged violations of the federal Clean Air Act at its facility in St Joe.

According to a news release the company has agreed to more closely monitor and better train employees working with industrial refrigerants.

Additionally, as part of the settlement, BIV has agreed to perform a supplemental environmental project, through which it will spend a minimum of $600,000 to replace refrigeration equipment at its Fort Dodge, Iowa, facility, switching older equipment that uses ozone-depleting substances for new units that don’t use ozone-depleting substances.

According to the complaint, EPA issued an information request to BIV in March 2005, seeking information about the condition of cooling systems at the St. Joseph facility, the services performed on appliances at the facility, and the amounts of refrigerant that it used. The complaint alleges that BIV’s response to the information request was not complete and accurate because it failed to report the true amount of refrigerant purchased by the facility, and failed to list all suppliers of refrigerant to the facility.

The complaint further alleges that the St. Joseph facility’s annualized leak rates of one or more of its industrial refrigeration systems exceeded 35 percent on one or more occasions during a five-year period. It also alleges BIV failed to perform leak testing and follow-up verification tests; failed to develop retrofit or retirement plans for leaking equipment, failed to complete retrofit or replacement of leaking equipment, and failed to maintain proper service and maintenance records for its equipment.