EASTON — The J.C. Huber Co. must address deficiencies in its model analysis on the impact of air emissions from the Easton waferboard plant.

This is a necessity before issuance of an amended air-emissions license to increase production, said Kevin McDonald, a Department of Environmental Protection enforcement specialist, on Wednesday.

If approved, the application, submitted Tuesday to the DEP, would allow Huber to increase production of waferboard from 240 tons per day to 425 at its Easton facility.

The license amendment was related to a lawsuit filed last month against Huber by the state on behalf of the Department of Environmental Protection and the U.S. attorney’s office for the Environmental Protection Agency.

In a joint effort, the environmental agencies levied fines of $942,000 against Huber for alleged violations of its production limit and air-emissions license at Easton. Negotiations apparently are continuing.

Plant Manager Richard York said the new application was another step toward a compliance schedule agreed to last fall by Huber, the DEP and the EPA. The next step is the planned installation in September of about $1 million in pollution-control equipment on the plant’s wood-fired rotary dryers that dry wood flakes for use in waferboard. The equipment is expected to be operational by October, York said.

York said the plant’s original application for an air license was submitted for a 240-ton-per-day plant. But since then, the plant has moved toward an average of 335 tons per day.

The initial license did not contain a ceiling of 240 tons per day, York maintained. Instead, it described pounds of particulate per ton of finished product, he said.

When the plant began to exceed 240 tons per day, the number of pounds of particulate became more stringent and Huber was notified last fall it was in violation of its air license, York added.

The time element for issuance of Huber’s license depends, in part, on how quickly Huber acts to correct deficiencies on the modeling analysis that predicts the impact from the air emissions from the Huber facility, McDonald said.

“We need that to ensure that the ambiant air quality standards are not being violated,” McDonald said.

The parties agreed that if the screening models showed deficiences, the DEP meteorologist and Huber’s consultant who did the modeling would meet and discuss a refined modeling procedure.

Because the refined modeling was done without the meeting, a letter was drafted Wednesday to notify Huber of areas that need attention in the refined modeling, McDonald said.