A Mason City cement company will install expensive air pollution control machines in its plant as a result of a lawsuit filed by the state. Bob Brammer is a spokesman for Iowa’s Attorney General. Brammer says the Lehigh Cement Company has to install over 33-million dollars worth of pollution control equipment as part of a court order, although the company agreed to do it. It’s part of the settlement of a three-year environmental law dispute between the state and the company. Brammer says the lawsuit alleged the company expanded, but failed to get the appropriate permits from the state. Brammer says the new equipment at the Mason City plant should siphon out up to five-thousand tons of sulfur dioxide from the air each year. The court also issued a 150-thousand dollar penalty to the company.
