The Environmental Defense Fund (EDF) has charged that U.S. refining industry emissions pose health threats, in part because of standards that vary too much from state to state.
The American Petroleum Institute called an EDF report on the subject simply an attack on industry.
EDF recently ranked oil refineries nationwide and reported the top polluting refineries were in West Virginia, followed by Kansas, Texas, and Mississippi. Refineries in New Jersey, which has extensive chemical reporting requirements, ranked among the best.
EDF said, Oil refineries use and release toxic chemicals that can harm human health and the environment. An average size refinery releases over 10,000 gal of waste daily to air, water, and land, not including accidents.
The report cited a list of refinery wastes that included benzene, a carcinogen reported by virtually all refineries; toluene, which may cause central nervous system dysfunctions; xylene, a neurotoxin that may also cause respiratory problems; and heavy metals, such as mercury, that damage ecosystems.
EDFs study
Lois Epstein, principal author of the EDF study, said, The report shows that some states and refineries do a much better job of protecting public health per barrel of oil refined. The public should advocate improvements in weaker facilities and states.
Congress should strengthen, not undercut, minimum requirements for states to protect citizens from toxic releases and not provide special exemptions for the oil industry. If key protections are weakened, some states could become pollution havens, not unlike certain developing countries.
The report recommended that refineries account for chemicals brought to the plants as well as those released as pollution, as required in New Jersey. Whats more, industry should develop a guide to ensure consistency in right-to-know reporting, and refinery pollution should be reduced at the source.
The study was based on data refineries reported in the 1992 Toxics Release Inventory (TRI), required by the federal Emergency Planning and Community Right to Know Act.
API rebuttal
API responded that EDF was way off base in its conclusions.
EDF uses 1992, not 1993, data and unfairly brands refineries as polluters harming human health and the environment. It is another in a series of attacks by EDF on the petroleum industry.
API said the more recent 1993 data show refinery releases of 300 chemicals declined 11% that year. It also said releases have dropped 32% since EPA began tracking them in 1988.
It observed that the refining industry trails the chemicals, primary metals, paper, transportation equipment, plastics, and fabricated metals industries in the total volume of chemical releases.
API said, Nearly all TRI chemicals in refinery wastes97% in 1993are recycled, treated, or burned for energy recovery. The remaining 3% is emitted into the air or injected underground in accord with EPA regulations.
In truth, U.S. petroleum companies are working hard for clean air, clean water, and for protection of the environment, and the record, when examined fairly, shows we are making steady progress toward that goal.
Copyright 1995 Oil & Gas Journal. All Rights Reserved.
