LIMESTONE – Federal regulators proposed nearly $195,000 in environmental fines Tuesday against a Maine Army National Guard maintenance operation at Loring Commerce Centre.

The Environmental Protection Agency said the proposed fines stem from alleged Clean Air Act violations for nearly six years at a facility where Humvees, bulldozers and tractors are refurbished.

The alleged violations involved failure to obtain or renew permits for nine boilers and three spray-painting booths.

The equipment is part of a Guard operation known as the Maine Readiness Sustainment Maintenance Center. Under the umbrella of the Guard’s Maine Military Authority, it is based at Loring, a decommissioned Air Force base.

The complaint, filed by EPA’s New England office, alleges that federal environmental law was violated between October 1997 and June 2003. EPA said the operations had the potential to emit volatile organic compounds, or VOCs. Ozone can form at ground level when VOCs react in the presence of sunlight.

EPA proposes $194,500 in civil penalties.

The facility rebuilds, maintains and manufactures equipment for the military, and painting military vehicles with VOC-containing paints is a major portion of the work.

Maj. Peter Rogers, spokesman for the Maine Army National Guard, said Tuesday afternoon that his office had just learned of the proposed fines Tuesday morning.

“The violations are for failure to obtain state permits, not for any emissions issues,” Rogers said. “Based on the low emissions that we were putting out, we didn’t believe that a permit was necessary … Basically, it’s an administrative issue.”

Rogers pointed out that once the Guard was told it needed the permits, they were quickly secured.

“We did an inspection of the facility back in 2002,” said Steve Calder, an EPA enforcement attorney. “We met with them last year and discussed the violations, so this is not new to them. They have secured the permits since we talked.”

In one instance, EPA alleges that the facility failed to obtain a state permit for a spray-painting booth installed in 2000 that has the potential to emit 114 tons of VOCs per year.

EPA also acknowledged the operation no longer is considered a major source of VOC emissions because the licenses and permits that it acquired limit emissions from the facility to 30 tons per year.

Rogers said Tuesday that the facility “never posed any health threat to anyone.”

“We recognized that we needed the permits and we got them,” Rogers said. “We are hoping to work something out with the EPA.”

Rogers said that a judge advocate general officer was talking with the EPA on the military’s behalf.

An agreement may be reached in six months.