Sara Lee hit with fine for ozone violation

CLAYTON, Mo. -- The Sara Lee Bakery Group has agreed to pay a $5.25 million fine to settle claims that it was responsible for "the largest ever corporate-wide violations" of U.S. ozone preservation laws.

The fine, announced last week, is the largest ever in the U.S. for the release of chemicals that damage the earth's protective ozone layer. Sara Lee Corp. is based in Chicago; its Bakery Group is based in the St. Louis suburb Clayton.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency said that 57 of Sara Lee's 67 bakeries nationwide had refrigeration systems that leaked chemicals that could deplete the ozone, and the company failed to repair the leaks. The investigation began when an employee tipped the EPA.

Sara Lee also agreed to make repairs to equipment by April 30, 2006, that will cost an additional $5 million, the EPA said.

The company disputes the charge but agreed to the fine because legal costs fighting it would have been excessive, spokesman Matt Hall said. He said equipment repairs have been under way since 1994.

"We feel good about the way we conduct our business," Hall told the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. "We don't feel like we're an environmental villain by any stretch of the imagination."

The ozone shields the Earth from radiation that can cause skin cancer and other health problems.

The Sara Lee Bakery Group acquired the bakeries when it purchased Earthgrains Co. in August 2001 for $2.8 billion. Nine of the 67 bakeries named in the suit -- including one in Springfield, Mo. -- have been shut down, Hall said. None was in the St. Louis area.

EPA spokesman John Millett said that of 300 pieces of refrigerant-containing appliances the agency studied, 189 leaked in excess of the amount permitted by law.

The law requires a company to repair an appliance that leaks 35 percent or more of its refrigerant per year. Some Sara Lee appliances ranged from 39 percent to 12,167 percent leakage, the EPA said in a complaint filed with the court.

Hall said Earthgrains, and later Sara Lee, worked to help the bakery industry develop a schedule -- finalized in February 2002 -- for complying with the federal Clean Air Act.

The largest previous payment for ozone law violations was paid by Air Liquide, a producer of industrial gases, which paid $4.5 million in 2001, the EPA said.