NEW YORK — H. Kramer & Co. has signed a consent decree with the federal Environmental Protection Agency and the state of Illinois to resolve alleged violations of the Clean Air Act and state environmental regulations at the company’s copper smelting foundry in southwest Chicago.

Under the terms of the settlement, H. Kramer will spend $3 million on advanced pollution controls for the foundry, pay a $35,000 penalty and provide $40,000 to retrofit local diesel school buses with emissions-reducing controls, the EPA said.

"The company denies the allegations of the government and maintains that it was continuously in compliance with all laws, regulations and permit conditions," Todd Wiener, a partner at Chicago-based law firm McDermott Will & Emery LLP and counsel for H. Kramer, told AMM. "But as stated in the consent decree, we are happy to have worked out the government’s claims."

The settlement follows EPA allegations that H. Kramer failed to maintain and operate the foundry’s furnaces in a manner that controlled lead emissions.