Westlake Chemical Corporation subsidiaries agreed to decrease harmful air pollution at three of its U.S. chemical sites.

Five subsidiaries of Westlake Chemical Corporation have agreed to make improvements in addition to carrying out compliance measures that have an estimated price of $110 million in an attempt to settle the allegations that they broke the Clean Air Act and state air pollution control laws, a recent news release from the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) said. 

The subsidiaries are Westlake Chemical OpCo LP, Westlake Petrochemicals LLC, Westlake Polymers LLC, Westlake Styrene LLC and Westlake Vinyls Inc.

“This settlement will require the Westlake companies to install pollution control and emissions monitoring equipment at the three facilities, reducing emissions of greenhouse gases and other harmful gases by thousands of tons per year,” Larry Starfield,  acting assistant administrator for the EPA’s Office of Enforcement and Compliance Assurance, said in the release. “Those controls, plus a requirement for fence line monitoring of benzene emissions and corrective actions when benzene readings are high, will result in significant benefits for the local communities in Kentucky and Louisiana."

Other officials commented on the new regulations as well. 

“The settlement’s significant reductions of hazardous and other air pollutants and greenhouse gases will serve to reduce exposure in the vulnerable nearby communities with environmental justice concerns," Todd Kim, assistant attorney general of the Justice Department’s Environment and Natural Resources Division, said in the release.