The Home Depot chain agreed to pay $8 million for selling tens of thousands of gallons of paint, varnishes, sealants and other liquid building materials that violated regional air quality rules, the South Coast Air Quality Management District announced Thursday, April 4.

The products were sold at 15 Home Depot stores within the air district’s jurisdiction, including outlets in Lake Elsinore, Moreno Valley and Rialto.

The settlement grew out of two civil lawsuits filed in Los Angeles County Superior Court by the air district, the Los Angeles city attorney and district attorney offices in Riverside, San Bernardino and Orange counties.

Home Depot has agreed to pay $1.48 million each to the three district attorney offices and the one city attorney’s office that brought the civil suit. The corporation also will pay $100,000 to cover investigative costs to each of those plaintiffs. Home Depot will pay another a $1.98 million to the air district.

The air district regulates volatile organic compounds — VOCs — that evaporate from paints, varnishes, stains, wood preservatives and waterproofing compounds, among other liquid products. The fumes react in the atmosphere with nitrogen oxides from factories and automobile emissions to create ozone, which peaks during hot, stagnant summer days.

Ozone is a corrosive gas blamed for various health problems. It irritates or burns soft tissues such as those in the nasal passage, throat and lungs. It can cause nausea, headaches and fatigue and aggravate asthma and other medical conditions.

In 2012, ozone levels exceeded the federal health standard on 115 days at one or more of the air district’s 36 pollution monitoring stations in the basin between the Pacific Ocean and the San Bernardino Mountains.

In November, the air district won an injunction to stop Home Depot stores from selling non-compliant products that included clear wood finishes, acrylic paints, sealers, lacquers, roof coatings, primers and paints.

“Paints and other coatings are one of our largest sources of air pollution,” Barry Wallerstein, the district’s executive officer, said in a news release. “Since the Southland has the most severe air pollution problem in the nation, our standards limiting the polluting ingredients must be enforced.”

Riverside County District Attorney Paul Zellerbach said in a statement: “The DA’s Office takes these types of violations very seriously and is always concerned with the health and well-being of the residents of this county. Settlements like this in cases brought by this office will continue to ensure that manufacturers and corporations abide by the rules and regulations imposed which protect us all.”

Paints and other coatings emit about 15 tons of VOCs per day in the air district’s jurisdiction — equivalent to VOC emissions from more than 1.1 million cars, according to the air district.

Agency spokesman Sam Atwood said the Home Depot settlement follows similar agreements signed in 2010 with Lowe’s and Wal-Mart chains, for $2.7 million and 2 million, respectively.

Home Depot USA spokesman Stephen Holmes emailed this statement late Thursday: “The Home Depot has been at the forefront of introducing Low-VOC and No-VOC products to its shelves over the past few years. Our environmental program for the safe handling and disposal of products deemed hazmat is considered industry-leading, (and) it’s been closely modeled by several other big box retailers.”