Costco will pay $335,000 in penalties for federal Clean...

Costco will pay $335,000 in penalties for federal Clean Air Act violations as part of an agreement to cut emissions of ozone-depleting and greenhouse gas chemicals from refrigeration equipment at more than half of its U.S. stores, the EPA said Wednesday (http://1.usa.gov/1ppyWD7). Costco also will improve refrigerant management at 274 stores at an estimated cost of $2 million over the next three years, EPA said. The retailer violated the federal Clean Air Act by failing to repair leaks of the refrigerant R-22, a hydrochlorofluorocarbon and ozone-depleting substance, between 2004 and 2007, EPA said. The measures required by the settlement are expected to prevent the release of more than 105,000 pounds of ozone-depleting refrigerants that destroy the ozone layer, leading to dangerous amounts of ultraviolet solar radiation striking the earth and increasing skin cancers and cataracts, EPA said.