State to get $322,000 in clean air settlement

? Kansas will receive $322,000 from Archer Daniels Midland Co. under a national settlement of pollution charges, the state Department of Health and Environment announced Wednesday.

Fourteen states, the Environmental Protection Agency and the U.S. Department of Justice had accused the Illinois-based company of violating the federal Clean Air Act.

ADM, the nation’s largest ethanol producer, agreed to spend $340 million to settle the allegations, part of which would pay for better pollution controls at 52 plants in 16 states. The company will also pay $4.6 million in civil penalties and $6.3 million to update diesel engines in school buses.

In Kansas, the company operates a sunflower oil processing plant in Goodland and operated a soybean oil processing plant in Fredonia until closing it last month.

ADM will pay Kansas $122,000 in cash plus $200,000 to develop a wetlands area near McPherson. The Goodland plant’s emissions are within federal levels and the plant will be updated to operate at reduced levels, the KDHE said.