Kaine asks local tile company be excused from new regulation

A Virginia building tile company with a Danville factory is among those U.S. Sen. Tim Kaine, D-Va., said could be hurt by new Environmental Protection Agency regulations, the senator said in a letter written last week.

Columbia Flooring, the Danville branch of Mohawk Industries, manufactures hardwood flooring for the larger corporation. The plant, which employs about 300 workers, has plans to add 40 more sometime this year. During a tour of the plant last year, manager Bert Eades said the flooring is gaining popularity because of its durability, with some floor finishes lasting decades.

“It is good public policy for EPA to reward this type of voluntary self-regulation,” Kaine said about the plant, which upgraded facilities to lower its pollution levels under EPA standards. “American tile manufacturers are fighting an uphill battle to maintain market share. Over 70 percent of the tile sold in the United States today is imported.”

Under a new EPA consent decree, new emission standards would classify clay ceramic manufacturing facilities as sources of pollution, categorizing the plants as polluters. The rule would set limits for several pollutants, including hydrogen fluoride, hydrogen chloride and several metals.

According to Kaine and the five other senators who signed the letter, this designation would create an unfair stigma for the companies, who they say operate under the standards for major sources of pollution.

“It is our understanding that voluntary action to reduce emissions has resulted in all floor tile manufacturing facilities falling below the major source threshold,” Kaine said in the letter.

Though one wall tile company is currently operating as a major polluter, the letter said it was installing measures to reduce pollution before the regulations go into effect.

“Foreign companies would use this designation to their advantage when competing with these American industries for projects for which sustainability is a factor,” the letter said.

The EPA regulation itself even warns of adverse effects on small businesses. Listed under potential effects, it states the regulations are, “likely to have a significant adverse economic impact on a substantial number of these small entities.”

As of Sept. 24, the regulations were in review by the Office of Budget and Management, the branch of the White House handling budget development and federal agency management.

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