Italian Government Seizes Cement Plant for Toxic Violations

This is what we call enforcement.

Italian Justice Department officials seized a cement kiln run by Italcementi, the world's fifth largest cement manufacturer, near the village of Velletri, southwest of Rome, for not completing updates in equipment that would bring it in line with European Union environmental standards.

It's the second time this year that the Italian government has resorted to seizure of a major polluter's facility. A steel plant was ordered shut last month.

In the case of the kiln, operations will continue while the modernization is being completed.

Italcementi owns the old Essroc cement plants in Logansport, and Speed, Indiana, Nazarath. Pennsylvania, and Martinsburg, West Virginia as well as Canada and Puerto Rico.