The timber and paper giant Boise Cascade agreed yesterday to settle a federal lawsuit, filed by the U.S. EPA and the Department of Justice, accusing the company of violating the New Source Review regulations of the Clean Air Act. The regulations require companies to install state-of-the-art pollution controls when upgrading facilities; the suit alleged that Boise Cascade failed to do so at eight plants in four states. Although continuing to protest its innocence, the company agreed to pony up $17.9 million to install pollution controls and another $4.3 million in fines. The cleanup could reduce soot and smog-producing pollution by 2,166 tons per year. The settlement comes just one week after EPA Administrator Christie Whitman drew fire by saying that companies involved in New Source Review litigation might want to stall while the Bush administration reevaluates the regulations.
