Shell, Environmental Groups Reach Settlement Over Deer Park Pollution

The Sierra Club and Environment Texas have announced that the suit they filed in January 2008, against Shell Oil Company and two of its affiliates, is on its way to settlement.

If judges approve the settlement, Shell Oil Company will owe $5.8 million for past violations, establishing a record as the largest environmental citizen suit penalty in the state.

“Shell has been a good example, or maybe you could say a bad example, of the problems that industrial plants in Texas have in upsets,” said Dr. Neil Carman, Clean Air program director for the Lone Star Chapter of the Sierra Club. (“Upset” events are things such as equipment breakdowns, malfunctions, and other non-routine incidents.)

“We urge other oil and chemical companies in the region to take note of
Shell’s willingness to work constructively with us in developing
solutions to the problems at the Deer Park facility — problems that are
not unique to Shell,” Carman said in a press release.

Although
it needs the final OK from U.S. District Judge David Hittner, the team
of citizen groups seem confident that Shell will be paying its dues and
making changes.

Shell’s Deer Park facility will need to take several actions, as highlighted in a Sierra Club press release:

• Monetary penalties for failures to meet pollution reduction benchmarks;

•
Plant upgrades to cut emissions from the most heavily used chemical
plant flare, and to reduce routine flaring throughout the complex;

• Plant upgrades to cut emissions from the Coker Unit at the refinery and from storage tanks throughout the complex;

• Enhanced monitoring of benzene emissions.

•
A mandatory 80% reduction in “upset” emissions within three years (a
cut of approximately 750,000 pounds per year compared to recent levels);

Upset emissions are to be reported by Texas companies within 24 hours, or they face penalties; however, the system seems flawed from the start.

There
was no agency involvement regarding an enforcement review or any kind
of health-effects review, and yet these facilities like the Shell Deer
Park citizen suit reported millions of pounds of illegal emissions,
Carman told HairBalls.

A former state official, inspecting
refineries, petrochemical plants and other industrial facilities for
over 12 years, Carman said there has been a reporting system state-wide
since the 1970s. But for over 30 years, all the companies had to
do was make a telephone report, followed by a written letter, and there
was no consequence of enforcement unless people complained.

The
Deer Park facility has been accused of violating more than a thousand
Clean Air Act violations since 2003. Paying the price for having
released nearly five million pounds of pollutants into the air, the
$5.8 million in settlement money will go to retrofitting or replacing
polluting diesel school buses, help fund the East Harris County Solar
Energy Pilot Program, and provide funds for the Ozone Theater Project
to educate children about air pollution.

The groups did send
in a notice of intent to Lyondell Chemical Company as well for its
Houston facility, but that litigation was put on hold since the company
declared bankruptcy, Josh Kratka, lawyer with the National
Environmental law center, told HairBalls.

Guess they won’t be shelling out millions in apologetic funds any time soon.