Cement company slammed with fines

One of the largest cement companies in the United States was recently fined $1.4 million in Clean Air Act violations for failing to obtain permits before modifying one of its plants in Fairborn, Ohio, according to an Environmental Protection Agency press release.

Houston-based CEMEX Inc., a global building-materials company, will be required to install state-of-the-art pollution-control technologies at the Fairborn plant that reduce nitrogen-oxide and sulfur-dioxide emissions, pollutants that can travel in the wind and cause childhood asthma, acid rain, smog, premature death and heart disease in nearby communities. The modifications are expected to cost the company an additional $2 million.

CEMEX has been in trouble before. In January 2009, the company was fined $2 million for similar violations at one of its plants in Victorville, Calif., about 40 miles north of San Bernardino.