The state Environmental Protection Division will hold a public hearing on an Athens company's request to renew its air-quality permit. No date has been set for the hearing or a possible public forum on the application, filed by Nakanishi Manufacturing Corp.

The 1225 Voyles Road facility, near Coile Middle School, is not asking to increase its emissions limits, according to records filed with the EPD.

The EPD does not conduct public hearings on all air-quality permits, but does when members of the public request a hearing.

The existing permit allows the Nakanishi plant, which makes machine bearings, to emit up to 100 tons a year of volatile organic compounds and up to 100 tons a year of trichloroethylene, a cancer-causing chemical used as a degreaser. Actual emissions of the chemicals are closer to 75 tons a year for each chemical class, according to the company.

The company's overall emissions of "hazardous air pollutants" rose from 102,000 pounds in 2000 to 130,000 pounds in 2002, the most recent data posted on the state's annual Toxic Release Inventory.