Didion Milling, Ethanol Plant Charged with Air Pollution Violations

Wisconsin Ag Connection - A Wisconsin grain milling operation and ethanol production plant is facing more legal trouble. Attorney General Josh Kaul announce that the Department of Justice has filed a civil environmental enforcement action against Didion Milling, Inc., and Didion Ethanol, LLC of Sun Prairie for alleged violations of its air pollution control permits at its facilities in Columbia County.

According to the complaint, which was filed in Columbia County Circuit Court, the company is being charged with 30 violations, including emissions control violations, leak detection violations, inspection and recordkeeping violations, control device monitoring violations, reporting violations, emissions inventory violations.

The violations were discovered during inspections conducted by the Department of Natural Resources.

"Permitted facilities must comply with the terms of their permits so that the safety, health, and wellbeing of Wisconsinites aren't endangered," Kaul said. "When those terms are violated, DOJ is committed to holding the responsible parties accountable."

This isn't the first time the company has been charged with legal penalties. In June 2021, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration fined the group after a worker was killed in a silo accident in late 2020. The Cambria operation is also the same facility where a contract worker was seriously injured in March 2020 after falling 30 feet from a catwalk in a corn dryer. And in 2017, an overnight explosion killed five employees and injured 15 others at the property.

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