The $10,000 penalty the state assessed for each violation is the maximum allowed.

The additional $608 is the cost of state investigations and inspections associated with the 1999 tests of kilns with baghouse pollution control equipment.

The company has appealed the fine.

Carolina Solite makes lightweight aggregate for use in building materials such as concrete block. It sometimes burns waste fuels as part of its operation and is the state’s only commercial hazardous waste incinerator.

The state Division of Waste Management fined Carolina Solite $52,000 last year for uncontrolled emissions at the plant. The company has appealed that fine also.

With the latest $40,608 penalty, reported to the company in February, the state Division of Air Quality determined that Carolina Solite failed to meet control efficiencies for mercury and hydrogen chloride.

Kiln and bagfilter-lime injection systems such as those in place at Carolina Solite are supposed to remove at least 50 percent of mercury and 60 percent of acid gases (hydrogen chloride).

For Jan. 13 to 16, 1999, tests at kiln 6, baghouse 7B, the average control efficiency was 34 percent for mercury and 20 percent for hydrogen chloride. That represented two violations.

In tests conducted Jan. 20 and 21, 1999, on kiln 7, baghouse 7B, the average control efficiency for hydrogen chloride was 10 percent, the third violation.

The fourth violation came in an April 27, 1999, test of kiln 8, baghouse 8B, which had a control efficiency of 17 percent for hydrogen chloride.

Earlier this month, state environmental officials reported the detection of unusually high arsenic levels in the air around the Solite plant. The arsenic measured two to six times the average at monitoring sites elsewhere in the state.

In response, the Department of Health and Human Services and the Stanly County Health Department said they will begin collecting urine samples of residents who live near Solite to check for metals, including arsenic.

Arsenic can cause cancer in people who are exposed over long periods of time. Company officials have said nearby cotton fields, sprayed with arsenic compounds to control weeds, are the likely source of the higher-than-normal readings close to the plant.

Other metals detected in Carolina Solite’s stacks, such as cadmium and lead, have not measured higher than the state average at the same monitoring stations.

The Division of Air Quality announced plans this month to step up analysis of stack emissions at Solite and set up two more air-monitoring sites.

Carolina Solite has been operating under a June 13, 1997, air permit and a settlement agreement the state reached with the company in July 1998 after the Division of Air Quality had revoked the permit.

Joann Almond, head of Stanly Citizens Opposed to Toxic Chemical Hazards, said Wednesday her concerns about Carolina Solite continue to grow. SCOTCH formed more than 10 years ago after learning that the plant burned waste fuels, and it has continually challenged the company’s environmental record and the state’s efforts at bringing the company into compliance with waste, air and water standards.

“If 10 years isn’t enough time to work with these people, what’s it going to take?” Almond said.

In a press release, SCOTCH says the problems with removing mercury and hydrogen chloride came despite new pollution control equipment installed by Solite as part of its 1998 settlement agreement.