The state Environmental Protection Division will hold public meetings on pollution permits for Athens' top two industrial air polluters over the next month.

At the first meeting, EPD scientists and officials of Nakanishi Manufacturing near Winterville will discuss that company's application to extend its permit. The meeting is scheduled for Monday at W.R. Coile Middle School, in sight of the Nakanishi plant at nearby 1225 Voyles Road.

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Nakanishi, which manufactures machine bearings, filed for an extension of its existing air quality permit, and is not asking for permission to increase its pollution output.

The EPD does not hold information meetings on all air quality permit applications, but scheduled Monday's public meeting because environmental regulators are working on a mandatory five-year review of the permit and because someone in the public requested the meeting - specifically, Micah's Mission, a faith-based group focused on environmental effects on children's health.

Nakanishi released 111,462 pounds of trichloroethylene, or TCE, in 2003, according to the federal Environmental Protection Agency's annual Toxic Release Inventory, compared to about 102,000 pounds in 2000 and 130,000 in 2002. TCE, a cancer-causing chemical used as a degreaser, is one of several dozen chemicals the federal government requires be tracked as "toxic" air pollutants.