US rule to cut toxic emissions at refineries

The regulations, announced Tuesday, will require the first so-called “fenceline” monitors at refineries to determine when harmful pollutants are released from the facilities.

The current federal limit on smog-forming pollution linked to asthma and respiratory illness “is not adequate to protect the public health”, a top USA environmental regulator said Tuesday. Only data made available to the public in real time will allow fenceline community residents to make their own decisions to limit their exposure to toxic pollution that threatens their health, or their lives.

For more on this, read the article from ThinkProgress titled: “The EPA Is Set to Issue Rule Curbing a risky Form of Air Pollution”.

In an email to Al Jazeera earlier this year, Marathon communications manager Jamal T. Kheiry said the firm had reduced emissions at the refinery by more than 75 percent since 1999.

Facing a court-ordered deadline, the EPA is expected to act by Thursday to set a new ozone standard.

“Companies have already spent billions of dollars to reduce emissions by installing flare gas recovery and flare minimization systems to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, and air quality continues to improve as a result of these voluntary programs and existing regulations”, API Downstream Group Director Bob Greco said in a written statement.

Business groups panned the EPA’s proposed ozone rules as unnecessary when they were announced last all, calling them the costliest regulation in history and warning they could jeopardize a resurgence in American manufacturing.

The agency estimated that the regulations would cost about $63 million to implement on an annual basis and would not noticeably impact petroleum prices. It predicts it would cost $1 billion to implement and contends refiners were already working hard on reducing their emissions.

The EPA reported that low-income and minority populations live near refinery fencelines at almost twice the rate of the general population.

“This conclusion demonstrates that the refinery hazardous air pollutant reductions have proven effective”, Thompson said. The rules also make emissions standards stricter for flares, pressure relief devices, storage tanks and delayed coker operations.

“Less smog means better health for all of us”, Billings said.

Lockridge welcomed the new rule because it, for the first time, publicly and officially acknowledged the impact on nearby communities, saying “It’s good someone’s finally thinking about the communities, the humans – you know?”

In particular, the new rules require continuous monitoring of benzene concentrations at the fenceline of refinery facilities to ensure that refineries appropriately manage toxic emissions.

“I have yet to see an ozone standard that has not been challenged by all sides”.