EAST DUBUQUE, Ill. -- Rentech Energy Midwest Corp. will pay a nearly $80,000 penalty and replace industrial equipment in an agreement settling allegations the fertilizer factory leaked excessive amounts of ozone-depleting refrigerants.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Region 5 this week announced the agreement with the East Dubuque plant, ultimately resolving the administrative action.

The leaks posed no danger to Rentech's residential neighbors, said Michelle Heger, environmental engineer for EPA Region 5, nor did they create any immediate threats to the environment.

"It was not a safety issue to neighbors or to our plant personnel," said John Ambrose, president of Rentech Energy Midwest.

The company has agreed to within a year replace the industrial process refrigeration unit with equipment that uses a nonozone-depleting substance.

Rentech will pay $79,700.50 in accordance with the agreement, which was obtained by the Telegraph Herald.

Chlorofluorocarbon refrigerants and certain substitute refrigerants deplete the stratospheric,

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or "good," ozone layer, allowing dangerous amounts of cancer-causing ultraviolet rays from the sun to strike the Earth. Production of some of these chemicals was stopped in 1995, and federal law strictly controls their use and handling.

Rentech voluntarily disclosed the potential regulation violations to EPA in September 2008.

According to the EPA's Consent Agreement and Final Order, on two occasions in 2006 the industrial process refrigeration unit -- used in the production of ammonia fertilizer -- experienced leaks that resulted in an annual leak rate exceeding 35 percent. Following repair attempts, Rentech failed to perform a follow-up test to verify that repairs had brought the rate below the threshold, EPA charges.

Rentech failed to retrofit or retire the unit within a year of the problem, and it failed to notify EPA of the equipment's failed follow-up verification test, the agency states.

Ambrose said the violations were more a matter of documentation failures. He said Rentech repaired the unit but did not provide proof within the mandated time line. He said the equipment no longer leaks, but it will be replaced.

"One thing we're committed to do, when we remove this existing unit that has CFCs in it, the CFCs will be destroyed," Ambrose said.

With the exception of the violations noted in the EPA report, Heger said Rentech has a clean record on CFCs.

"They've had no problems in the past," she said.