Idaho Company Sues EPA To Lift Refrigerant Ban

BOISE, Idaho - An Idaho company is seeking an injunction against the federal Environmental Protection Agency, which banned the company's hydrocarbon coolant.

OZ Technology of Post Falls recently filed suit against the EPA in U.S. District Court at Boise.

The lawsuit claims the EPA violated its own rules and regulations in an improper ban of the company's product.

OZ Technology manufactures a hydrocarbon-based coolant that is a substitute for freon-type CFC-based coolants that will be phased out starting in 1996.

An EPA representative at the regional office at Seattle said he had no specific information to respond to the claims in the lawsuit.

EPA contended the OZ product poses a fire hazard. But Charles Lempesis, an attorney representing OZ, said a recent risk analysis study by the University of South Wales concluded that the reasonable likelihood of the product reaching ignition stage was one in 10

million.