An oil refinery agreed to pay a civil penalty of $35 million and implement compliance measures estimated to cost $137 million to settle a Clean Air Act enforcement case.

Extensive Monitoring Requirement
In addition to the penalty and compliance measures, the refinery “must operate 10 real-time air pollution monitors along the refinery fence line and one real-time air pollution monitor and six other passive monitors” in a nearby community, according to a US Department of Justice (DOJ) press release. The refinery must make the monitoring results “available on a public website.”

Wide Range of Alleged Violations and Compliance Measures
DOJ alleged the refinery failed to comply “with regulations that govern a wide range of refinery equipment and operations, including flaring, fenceline monitoring of benzene emissions, wastewater, storage vessels, heat exchanger leaks and leak detection and repair.”
The compliance measures the refinery must implement include:

• Installing a flare gas recovery system
• Upgrading its wastewater equipment to reduce benzene in wastewater streams
• Implementing numerous projects, such as the installation of geodesic domes, for storage vessels to reduce emissions
• Strengthening leak detection and repair practices and
• Implementing an enhanced inspection and chemical monitoring program of heat exchangers to identify emissions from cooling towers.

To see the press release, which has a link to DOJ’s Complaint and the proposed Consent Decree filed in federal court https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/hf-sinclair-navajo-agrees-settlement-reduce-climate-and-health-harming-emissions-artesia