|
State, BP reach tentative agreement on emissions
By T.J. Aulds
The Daily News
Published June 30, 2009
TEXAS CITY — The Texas attorney general and BP have reached a partial settlement in a lawsuit against the oil company for what the state claims were repeated environmental violations at its Texas City refinery.
Earlier this month, the state sued BP for what Attorney General Greg Abbott said was a “pattern of unnecessary and unlawful emissions” at the refinery between 2000 and 2007.
Those events resulted in 15 citations or enforcement orders by the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality.
Many of the events were also part of a federal environmental lawsuit the company and the U.S. Department of Justice settled. BP was forced to pay a $53 million fine.
The agreement announced Monday comes in the form of a temporary injunction and does not settle the lawsuit Abbott filed June 4. The company still faces state fines and penalties despite the agreement. The accord includes four environmental steps BP has agreed to take at its 2,000-acre refinery.
BP agreed to conduct a comprehensive review of the 53 emission events that are cited in the state’s lawsuit. Those include emissions occurring during the March 23, 2005, explosions at the refinery that killed 15 workers and injured more than 170 others.
The refinery also must improve air monitoring systems so emission events can be more easily identified.
BP must also improve its reporting procedures for events in which toxic chemicals or pollutants are released. In the lawsuit, Abbott accused BP of failing or being slow to report emissions to the state’s environmental agency.
The agreement “is an important step in that effort as it spells out the future steps the BP Texas City refinery will take to clarify reporting requirements and improve reporting of emissions events to TCEQ, identify opportunities for continuous improvement in environmental performance through a comprehensive review of past emissions events, and enhance fence-line air monitoring at the refinery,” BP spokesman Scott Dean said in a prepared statement.
“All of these steps are consistent with our ongoing efforts to reduce the frequency and size of emissions events at the Texas City Refinery.”
Fence-line air monitoring is a process in which air-monitoring stations are set up on the perimeter of a refinery or chemical plant. It is considered to be a more accurate measurement of pollutants that are released from a facility than are captured by ambient community air monitors that the state and county use to measure air quality.
Share |
Save |
Mail |
Print |
Letter |
2
Comments
|
|
|
