Among U.S. Refineries, Chalmette Refining is No. 8 Emitter of Carcinogen: Report

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BY MARK SCHLEIFSTEIN | STAFF WRITER FEB 6, 2020 - 12:01 AM

This photo of Chalmette Refining was taken on Jan. 22, 2013, when it was still owned by ExxonMobil. The refinery is working to reduce benzene emissions after 2019 fenceline monitoring indicates emissions are higher than allowed under EPA rules and could pose a risk to human healyh.

PBF Chalmette Refining fenceline benzene monitoring: Benzene levels averaged 12.3 micrograms per cubic meter, 37 percent more than EPA’s “action level” for the cancer-causing chemicals. Fenceline monitoring stations in yellow were above the EPA acute level of 9 micrograms per cubic meter during the three months ended Oct. 31, 2019.

Mark Schleifstein

Chalmette Refining ranked eighth among the nation's refineries in the level of cancer-causing benzene emissions measured at fenceline monitors, according to a report released Thursday by the Washington, D.C.-based Environmental Integrity Project, the New Orleans-based Louisiana Bucket Brigade and other environmental groups. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency started tracking the self-reported fenceline monitoring results in 2018, requiring refineries to determine whether average annual emissions at the monitoring sites exceed 9 micrograms per cubic meter and, if they do, to reduce them.

The Chalmette facility is one of 10 refineries in the country — out of more than 100 tested — that were above that threshold as of September, the report found, with a net concentration of 12.3 micrograms per cubic meter.

Louisiana has 17 refineries, four of which were mentioned in the report.

Chalmette Refining, owned by PBF Energy, notified the state Department of Environmental Quality in November that it had developed a corrective action plan aimed at reducing benzene emissions, based on its own high fenceline monitoring results. The refinery said it will modify a centrifuge used to deal with sludge created in the refining process, with the work to be completed by March 31.

In its letter, the company pointed out that while the emissions levels were above the EPA's trigger levels, none of its monitors showed average concentrations above the state's benzene emission standard — which is 12 micrograms per cubic meter, well above the threshold set by the EPA. A similar disclaimer appears on the company's website page dedicated to fenceline monitoring.

But the environmental groups point out that, while emission levels above the EPA threshold are not a violation of federal law, the state's standards still exceed the risk levels for chronic and acute exposure developed by the EPA and other states.

The Environmental Integrity Project, formed by former EPA enforcement attorneys, public interest lawyers and community organizers, pointed out in its report that the EPA's limits are based on benzene human health risk information developed by the agency and by the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry, an arm of the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

"These results highlight refineries that need to do a better job of installing pollution controls and implementing safer workplace practices to reduce the leakage of this cancer-causing pollutant into local communities," EIP Executive Director Eric Schaeffer said in a news release announcing the study. "EPA in 2015 imposed regulations to better monitor benzene and protect people living near refineries, often in working-class neighborhoods. Now, EPA needs to enforce these rules."

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The 2018 rule changes were the result of a lawsuit filed in 2012 by EIP, the Bucket Brigade and other environmental groups over the EPA's failure to set standards for benzene and to require fenceline monitoring.

The Bucket Brigade's fights over emissions at Chalmette Refining go back much further, including a 2005 federal court judgment that required the company to reduce some emissions and install some fenceline monitoring.

Anne Rolfes, founding director of the Bucket Brigade, said the EPA fenceline rules don't go far enough, as they are aimed only at refineries and also don't measure a list of other potential cancer-causing substances released by refineries and petrochemical plants.

"If we had a more robust monitoring program, we'd be better able to solve the pollution exposure problem," she said.

A key part of the problem, she said, is the reluctance of the DEQ to take the lead in pushing industry to reduce emissions, including benzene.

"The technology exists to understand what's being released by all of these plants," Rolfes said, but the state has a limited number of monitors, and they don't monitor most hazardous chemicals.

"Why would we be using an 8-track tape player when we can be using streaming music?" she said. "And the state's monitors, they're really using a Victrola."

In responding to the report, a refinery trade association pointed to its members' history of spending "billions of dollars" to reduce emissions. PBF Energy is a member of the group, the American Fuel and Petrochemical Manufacturers.

The group said that between 1990 and 2003, refiners reduced hazardous air pollution by two-thirds, and specific "criteria pollutants" by three-fourths.

"Our members share the public's concern for the environment, health, and safety," the group said in a statement. "We work hard to operate in a safe and environmentally responsible manner."

The association said other refiners have responded to high benzene levels with fixes similar to those being put in place by Chalmette Refining. It disagreed with the report's conclusion that the benzene amounts detected translate to elevated risk to the public.

"EPA intended the fenceline monitoring data to be used as a tool to assist a facility in measuring potential leaks and to assure that emission sources at facilities are effectively controlled," the statement said. "It is not intended as a measure of community exposure or health risk and could inadvertently provide misleading results to the public."

And in a response to questions about the report, Chalmette Refining issued a statement saying that the EPA "did not establish the fence line monitoring program as a risk reduction step..."

"Rather, the fence line monitoring requirements are a development of practices that will provide additional information on the status of emission sources for refineries and the public. It is also important to note that the fence line monitoring program is not an appropriate tool for monitoring and assessing emergency releases since the data from the monitors are not immediately available," the statement said.

But in announcing the 2015 settlement that resulted in the monitoring requirement, then-EPA Administrator Gina McCarthy said the monitoring requirements and requirements to identify and reduce emissions were directly related to their potential health effects.

"These updated Clean Air Act standards will lower the cancer risk from petroleum refineries for more than 1.4 million people and are a substantial step forward in EPA's work to protect the health of vulnerable communities located near these facilities," McCarthy said.

"The act requires a healthy environment for all communities, and this rule delivers on EPA's commitment to environmental justice by reducing toxic air pollutants that impact families living near refineries by requiring, for the first time ever in an EPA air rule, monitoring of emissions at the fenceline and requiring action be taken if standards are exceeded."

EIP and the Bucket Brigade also cited the monitoring's potential to reduce the health effects of benzene.

According to the EPA's Integrated Risk Information System, chronic lifetime exposure to benzene concentrations as low as 13 micrograms per cubic meter is likely to add one cancer case for every 10,000 people exposed. The EIP report said areas near the 10 refineries that exceed the EPA's benzene threshold could see as many as four additional cancers per 10,000 people exposed.

The group also pointed out that California's Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment has set its own chronic exposure level for benzene at 3 micrograms per cubic meter, one-third of the EPA standard and one-fourth the Louisiana threshold. Only when emissions are below that level, the California agency says, would people avoid all potential health effects from emissions.

Above the 3 microgram level, chronic exposure could result in decreased white blood cell counts and increased risk of blood disorders and disease, the group said.

The report pointed out that the refineries are not the only source of benzene people are exposed to. Others include motor vehicles and other petrochemical plants.

State and federal agencies also have developed short-term, or acute, exposure limit recommendations for benzene that are based on the potential that such exposures could harm the human blood system, and cause developmental delays in young children.

The Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry has established a minimal risk level for acute inhalation exposure of about 30 micrograms per cubic meter over 14 days.

Chalmette Refining ranks sixth among the refineries examined on that metric. Twice in 2019, monitors found a maximum two-week net concentration of 97 micrograms per cubic meter.

Three other Louisiana refineries also had fenceline emissions above the acute risk level: Placid Refining Port Allen, with 57 micrograms per cubic meter, measured once during the year; the Shell Norco Manufacturing Complex, with 37 micrograms per cubic meter, measured twice; and ExxonMobil's Baton Rouge Refinery, with 31 micrograms per cubic meter, measured once.

None of those three exceeded the EPA levels for chronic risk, according to the report.

Louisiana's refineries remain well below the three refineries at the top of the EIP list of acute risk, in New Mexico, Pennsylvania and Texas.

Mark Schleifstein covers the environment and is a leader of the Louisiana Coastal Reporting Team for The Times-Picayune | The New Orleans Advocate. Email: mschleifstein@theadvocate.com.

Facebook: Mark Schleifstein and Louisiana Coastal Watch.

Twitter: MSchleifstein.

Tags: Refineries, Chalmette Refining, Carcinogen, Emission

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