Louisiana’s 17 refineries and two associated chemical plants averaged six accidents per week in 2012, resulting in the release of 2.3 million pounds of pollution, according to a study released Tuesday by the Louisiana Bucket Brigade.
The study was co-sponsored by the Standard Heights Community Association in Baton Rouge, Residents for Air Neutralization of Shreveport, the United Steelworkers, and the Occupational Health and Safety Section of the American Public Health Association.
The study’s findings are based on reports filed with the Louisiana Department of Environmental Quality by the refineries and chemical plants and information gathered by the federal Environmental Protection Agency, according to Anne Rolfes, founding director of the Bucket Brigade.
“There was a big bump in emissions, mostly, but not completely because of Hurricane Isaac,” Rolfes said. And she said that based on similar studies conducted in previous years, the total amount of chemicals and number of accidents are likely to rise for 2012 because of slow reporting to state officials by the refineries.
Refineries provided no information about 11% of their accidents, according to the report. In Shreveport, 12% of Calumet Refining’s reports were not filed until community members called the state agency and forced the reporting.
“It is essential that refinery incidents get reported because that is one of the first steps in protecting the employees and the community,” said USW International Vice President Gary Beevers, in a news release announcing the report.
“There is nothing more fundamental for workers’ and communities’ right-to-know than a robust system of reporting chemical releases, and making the data easily available,” said Celeste Monforton, policy co-chair of the Occupational Health & Safety Section, American Public Health Association. “LABB’s report confirms what workers and residents have known for years—-petrochemical companies too often skirt the laws for reporting serious incidents.”
“We’ve been asking since 2008 for the refineries to sit down and look at their accidents with us,” Rolfes said. Only officials with Marathon Ashland Petroleum in Garyville, which had the seventh largest air pollution accident in 2012 – the release of 73,200 pounds of sulfur dioxide on March 22 – have agreed to do so, she said.
That company has provided the Bucket Brigade with some corrections to the numbers the group gathered from state reports, she said.
The report was immediately attacked by EnergizeLA, a communications arm of the Louisiana Mid-Continent Oil and Gas Association, which represents the state’s refineries.
“The oil and gas industry in Louisiana takes environmental and worker-safety concerns very seriously,” said a statement released by the organization following the Bucket Brigade report’s release. “At the same time, we take great pride in the tremendous progress that is being made on reducing emissions – even as production has continued apace – and our record of improving worker safety. These are key facts that must be included in any conversation about Louisiana’s vital refining industry, and the state’s energy industry overall”
In its statement, EnergizeLA repeated criticisms that the refineries and the Louisiana Department of Environmental Quality have cited following similar reports issued by the Bucket Brigade between 2009 and 2011, including allegations by DEQ officials that the environmental group’s accident numbers don’t match those in the state’s accident database.
“This database, which the Bucket Brigade traditionally claims is the source of its data, actually shows that refinery incidents have fallen sharply over the past decade,” the statement said. “According to LDEQ, emissions associated with unauthorized discharges decreased by 41 percent since 2008. In fact, emission-reduction efforts from refining and chemical facilities helped the Baton Rouge area meet all federal ozone air quality standards for the first time ever in 2008, and again in 2009 and 2010.
“And now, thanks in large part to the efforts of the refineries themselves, Louisiana is on track to meet the federal 75 ppb ozone standard by the end of 2013,” the industry statement said.
Rolfes said that DEQ’s database actually is a site from which individuals can download the documents submitted by industry to the state, and not a compendium of statistics. Her staff has been compiling the data from those letters and reports daily over the past year to produce the report.
“The bottom line is that the Clean Air Act requires them to report on their own accidents and those are the letters we look at,” she said. “This arguing about the numbers is a distraction. They may go up and down, but the bottom line is that they do have accidents and they do need to resolve them, and that’s where they need to put their energy.”
EnergizeLA also criticized the report for failing to acknowledge major reductions in emissions from accidents that have been registered by the state’s refinery industry in earlier years.
“Louisiana’s air quality is the best it has been since the Clean Air Act was signed into law in the 1970s – and that’s as our energy boom in Louisiana has continued ramp up,” said the group’s statement. “As Rodney Mallet of the LDEQ told the Times Picayune last year, ‘We have the data, and EPA agrees, that the environment in Louisiana is the best it’s been since the Clean Air and Clean Water acts were implemented.’ “
The biggest air pollution accident in 2012 was the release of 648,733 pounds of mostly carbon monoxide on May 8 by Motiva Enterprises in Norco. Motiva also recorded the second largest release, 239,879 pounds of chemicals, half of which was carbon monoxide, on Aug. 28; and the fifth largest, 128,104 pounds of chemicals of which 50 percent was carbon monoxide, on June 28.
The Shell Chemical East plant on the Motiva Enterprises “campus” in Norco had the third and fourth largest accidents, with 198,959 pounds of chemicals, with a little over half being carbon monoxide, on June 23; and 180,629 pounds, again with about half being carbon monoxide, on Dec. 6.
The ExxonMobil chemical plant, adjacent to the company’s refinery, had the last last three of the top 10 largest air pollution accidents, according to the report, with the release of 62,918 pounds of chemicals, almost all of which was hydrochloric acid, on Nov. 30; 62,193 pounds, of which half was benzene, a chemical known to cause cancer, on June 14; and 51,872 pounds, with just over half being sulphur dioxide, on Nov. 9.
The report also charges that the refineries are not reporting all accidents or under-reporting the release of chemicals or their effects on surrounding communities and workers, and provides information for how workers and residents can report releases anonymously.
Rolfes said that at times, the refineries will say the chemicals were released at levels that are below quantities required to be reported.
That’s what ExxonMobil did in June, when it told state officials that it released under 10 pounds of benzene.
“But neighbors and workers were calling us and after we raised questions, they ended up reporting more than 32,000 pounds of benzene had been released,” Rolfes said..
“Our antidote for that is for people to report, for workers and passersby to report releases to iWitnesspollution.org,” an online database and map that allows people to report releases either anonymously or using their names.
The report also recommends that workers and residents report releases to the Louisiana Department of Environmental Quality and other agencies, such as the Coast Guard’s National Response Center.
It also urges Louisiana Department of Environmental Quality employees to contact the Environmental Protection Agency’s Inspector General to report incidents where the agency is not properly responding to accidents. The EPA inspector general can be reached at 1.888.546.8740 or reports can be made online at epa.gov/oig/hotline.html#File_Now .
Criminal activity also can be reported to EPA’s criminal investigation division in Baton Rouge, at 225.925.3083.
Rolfes said her group has found that while the total number of accidents dropped from 346 in 2011 to 327 in 2012, the accidents seem to be getting worse, with 2.3 million pounds of air pollutants released in 2012, an increase of 12 percent in air pollutants from 2011, and a 20 percent increase in the amount of air pollutants per accident.
“Our recommendation for that is for the refineries to hire more people and invest in new equipment,” Rolfes said. “That also would be good for the region’s economy.”
Of particular concern, Rolfes said, is the report’s finding that the refineries continue to be unprepared for rain and wind events and for storms in general.
The study found that the refineries cited weather as the cause of 45 percent of air releases and 99 percent of water releases in 2012.
Several of the major releases in 2012 occurred during Hurricane Isaac, an unexpectedly devastating storm that also showed that industries planning ahead could avoid releases, she said.
“Valero shut down in advance and there was no problem,” she said. Motiva, however, continued to operate and ended up reporting the release of a ton of benzene.
“A worker on staff at the time of the hurricane, who asked for anonymity due to fear of retaliation, said it is routine for Motiva to stay open during hurricanes,” the report said. “However, when the power went out in the area, the worker said an order was given for an emergency shut down and employees ahd to work outside during the hurricane to complete the shut down.”
Rolfes said the state should be enforcing rules that would require plants to at least have backup power supplies, and to make alternative arrangements for wastewater treatment facilities.
Also of concern, the report said, is a significant increase in hydrogen cyanide releases in 2012. “This is because EPA required refineries to actually measure (rather than estimate) this chemical coming out of their stacks in 2011 and 2012,” the report said.
According to the report, there have been 3,339 accidents at refineries since 2005, resulting in the release of 24 million pounds of air pollution and 25 million gallons of water pollution.
The reports are available at the Bucket Brigade’s online Refinery Accident Database.
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