Attleboro plant agrees to $2.3m pollution settlement

The owners of an Attleboro plant that makes coatings for pills and vitamins, candies, produce and other food products, as well as resins for industrial products, will pay $2.3 million to settle allegations the plant violated state environmental laws.

Mantrose-Haeuser Co. Inc., a subsidiary of Zinsser Co. Inc., which is in turn owned by RPM International Inc. in Ohio, will pay $2 million in civil penalties and $300,000 to support two environmental projects. The settlement, made public today, is the second largest ever reached by the state attorney general's Environmental Protection Division.

"Companies that use dangerous materials and emit pollutants into the environment have to be held to a very high standard of care," Coakley said in a statement. "While the large civil penalty in this case is appropriate because public health and safety and the environment were compromised, equally important are the facility's improved compliance operations."

The Attleboro plant, in a residential neighborhood near Ten Mile River, was cited for several violations by the state, including:

-- Inaccurately reporting its air-polluting emissions when seeking a permit in the late 1990s

-- Using outmoded emissions-measuring equipment

-- Failing to properly store, label, handle, move, recycle, and keep records of its waste.

A call to Mantrose-Haeuser was not immediately returned.
(By Erin Ailworth, Globe staff)