Mr. Michael Cassidy, Staff EHS Specialist 

Environment, Health, Safety 

Kohler Company 

444 Highland Drive, Mail Stop 009 

Kohler, Wisconsin 53044 

Dear Mr. Cassidy: 

 Thank you for your efforts in coordinating the August 5, 2008 and August 11, 2008 site 

visits by U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and RTI personnel to the Kohler 

Company (Kohler) facilities in Spartanburg, South Carolina, and Kohler, Wisconsin. We 

appreciate the time that you and other representatives at Kohler set aside for discussing and 

showing your manufacturing process. 

 Enclosed are drafts of the two trip reports (Enclosure 1) that have been prepared based on 

the information obtained during our site visits. We would appreciate your reviewing the reports 

for any errors or omissions. You may return the enclosed copies of the reports with your written 

comments. Since these reports will eventually become a part of the public record, we want to 

portray your operations as accurately as possible. A copy of the final version of each report 

incorporating your comments will be sent to you for your records. 

 The custody receipt for the trip reports are also enclosed (Enclosure 2). Please sign and 

date the form to acknowledge receipt of the reports and return a copy of the form to: 

Mr. Roberto Morales; U.S. Environmental Protection Agency; Office of Air Quality Planning 

and Standards; IO/PRRMS (MD-C404-02); 109 T.W. Alexander Drive; Research Triangle Park, 

North Carolina 27711. 

 If you believe that disclosure of any specific information contained in the trip reports 

would reveal trade secrets or other confidential information, you should clearly identify the 

specific information. Please do not label the entire reports as “confidential” if only certain 

portions consist of trade secret information. If the EPA determines that there is a need to disclose 

such information, we will need, at that time, the following to support your claim: 

 1. Measures taken by Kohler to guard against undesired disclosure of the specific 

information to others; 
 2. The extent to which the specific information has been disclosed to others and the 

precautions taken in connection therewith; 

 3. Pertinent confidentiality determinations, if any, by other Federal agencies (furnish a 

copy of any such determination, or reference to it, if available); and 

 4. Whether Kohler asserts that disclosure of the specific information would be likely to 

result in substantial harmful effects on Kohler’s competitive position, and, if so, what those 

harmful effects would be, why they should be viewed as substantial, and an explanation of the 

causal relationship between disclosure and such harmful effects. 

 Any specific information subsequently determined to constitute a trade secret will be 

protected under 18 U.S.C. 1905. If no claim of confidentiality accompanies the information 

when it is received by EPA, it may be made available to the public by EPA without further 

notice (40 CFR Part 2.203, September 1, 1976). Any specific information subsequently 

determined to constitute a trade secret will be protected under 18 U.S.C. 1905. However, all 

emissions data will be available to the public. A clarification of the information EPA considers to 

be emissions data is contained in Enclosure 3. 

 We respectfully request that you submit your review comments on the trip reports by 

November 7, 2008. If you concur with the information contained in the reports, we would 

appreciate a letter to that effect. In addition, please indicate in your letter the specific parts of the 

reports, if any, that Kohler considers to be confidential. If we do not receive a response by 

November, 7 2008, the reports will be considered non-confidential and accurate. 

 Thank you for your cooperation. The information supplied by Kohler will be most helpful 

in our study. If you have any questions, please call Mr. Jeff Telander of my staff at (919) 541-

5427 or Mr. Rick Marinshaw of RTI at (919) 316-3735. 

 Sincerely, 

Steve Fruh 

Group Leader 

Metals and Minerals Group 

Office of Air Quality Planning and Standards 

3 Enclosures 
Enclosure 3