FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE ENR

TUESDAY, MAY 26, 1998

NEW ENGLAND WIRE MAKER TO PAY

$2.4 MILLION TO SETTLE FEDERAL POLLUTION SUIT

WASHINGTON, D.C. -- The United States Environmental Protection

Agency and the Justice Department today announced that American
Insulated Wire Corporation has agreed to a $2.4 million settlement to
resolve claims that it violated three federal environmental laws.
Under the agreement, the company will pay a $1.4 million penalty,
spend $1 million on two supplemental environmental projects that will
reduce air and water pollution, and ensure it complies with the laws
the government alleged it violated.

"This settlement will help ensure that the people who live in and
around South Attleboro have cleaner, healthier air to breathe," said
Lois J. Schiffer, Assistant Attorney General in charge of the Justice
Department's Environment and Natural Resources Division.

In a lawsuit filed with the settlement in U.S. District Court in

Boston today, the government alleged that Rhode Island-based AIW
violated air pollution, hazardous waste, and toxic substance reporting
laws at its wire manufacturing plant in South Attleboro,
Massachusetts, just across the border from Pawtucket. The
government's lawsuit alleged that for more than twenty years AIW
installed equipment that emitted volatile organic chemicals to the air
without obtaining the permits required by Massachusetts regulations
set in place under the federal Clean Air Act. Volatile organic
compounds are a major contributor to smog.

"The penalty sends a strong message that the federal government

will not tolerate long-term, serious polluters," said John P.
DeVillars, administrator of EPA's New England office. "The
environmental projects AIW agreed in go beyond compliance and will
improve New England's environment by reducing polluting air emissions
more than the law requires, and will virtually eliminate AIW's
wastewater discharges to the Blackstone River."

The lawsuit also alleged that AIW violated the nation's main
hazardous waste law, the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act. When
EPA inspected AIW's plant they found poor hazardous waste storage
practices. The complaint also alleged that AIW under-reported its
shipments of toxic substances, violating the Emergency Planning and
Community Right-to-Know Act.

Today's settlement ensures that AIW will comply with these laws.

Both DeVillars and Schiffer praised the Massachusetts Department

of Environmental Protection for helping develop the case. "We have
better compliance with environmental laws when the federal government
and the states work together," said Schiffer.
 "Massachusetts DEP, especially the air pollution control program,
did a great job of initially investigating this facility," said
DeVillars.

The two supplemental environmental projects the company will

perform will reduce air and water pollution. Under the first project,
AIW will retrofit the plant's two industrial boilers to burn only
natural gas from May through September for two years. This will help
reduce several airborne contaminants in the neighborhood around the
plant during the summer months. EPA estimates that during the switch
the boilers will reduce their sulfur dioxide emissions by almost 100
percent, particulate emissions by 83 percent, and nitrogen oxide by 62
percent.

Under the second project, the plant will build a closed-loop

wastewater recycling system that will completely eliminate its
wastewater discharges into the Blackstone River.

The proposed settlement is on file with the federal district

court and will be published in the Federal Register for a 30-day
public comment period. After the comment period ends, the government
may ask the court to finalize the agreement.

The case is United States of America v. American Insulated Wire

Corporation, U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts,
civil action number 98 CV 10993 NG.

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