EPA fines Total Petrochemicals’ Port Arthur refinery for violations, including emissions limits

Total Petrochemical USA, Inc. will pay a fine of US$8.75 ln to the Department of Justice for the Port Arthur refinery’s violations of the Consent Decree signed with the Environmental Protection Agency in July 2007, as reported by The Port Arthur News. Between 2007 and 2011, the press release stated, Total violated numerous requirements of the 2007 settlement, including failing to comply with emissions limits for benzene, a harmful air pollutant. The company also failed to perform corrective actions or to analyze the cause of more than 70 incidents involving emissions of hazardous gases through flaring. EPA discovered the violations through a review of the quarterly compliance reports required by the 2007 settlement. The settlement required that Total pay a US$2.9 mln penalty and make upgrades to its facility that would reduce emissions of harmful air pollution and resolve violations of the Clean Air Act. Total was also required to upgrade leak detection and repair practices and implement programs to minimize flaring. “Companies that settle with the United States must meet their obligations or there will be consequences, as this significant penalty demonstrates,” Robert G. Dreher, Acting Assistant Attorney General for the Justice Department’s Environment and Natural Resources Division, said in the press release. “Total failed repeatedly to adhere to obligations they willingly took on.” Tricia Fuller, Total’s manager of public affairs, said in a statement to the media that the violations resulted from the refinery’s misinterpretation of the EPA’s reporting procedures, and that the refinery remedied this immediately upon clarification. In addition to the penalty, the EPA’s action extends the requirement that Total comply with a lower benzene emissions limit for an additional two years. The enhanced limit for benzene, which is 30 percent lower than the federal limit, was initially required by the 2007 settlement. Additionally, Total must hire a third-party to audit its compliance under the settlement and must implement a company task force to monitor its compliance. While Total did not increase its benzene levels from previous years, Fuller said, the penalties reflect a delay in satisfying a more stringent limit imposed by the EPA through the Consent Decree, which required new controls to significantly reduce emissions. “The refinery made significant investments and modifications to comply with the more stringent limit,” Fuller said. “Results show that levels have consistently decreased since July 2007.”