Concerned Citizens Around Murphy: Citizen's Enforcement Action

Citizen's Enforcement Action

Excerpts from complaint filed in 2008:

39. Since October 2003, Defendant has emitted more than 800,000 pounds of pollutants in excess of the limits in its Permits. 40. On at least 15 occasions, Defendant has emitted more than half of its yearly permitted total for a pollutant in a single permit violation. 41. On more than 120 occasions in the past five years Defendant has emitted pollutants at a rate that exceeds the hourly emission limits set in its Permits. 42. Defendant has exceeded its hourly emission limits in its Permits at rates hundreds, thousands, and even millions times greater than the permit limits. 43. In one breach, Defendant discharged volatile organic compounds at a rate 48 million times greater than the hourly limit set in its permit. 44. Defendant has exceeded annual emission limits set in its Permits. On at least five occasions, Defendant has exceeded its annual emission limits during a single emission event.

Murphy Oil's acid gas flaring report

excerpts from court 12-09-2009

Murphy Oil repeatedly violated hourly and yearly emission limitations set by the Louisiana Department of Environmental Quality, and also that Murphy Oil failed to properly maintain certain pollution control devices....these violations endanger the health and impair the quality of life of those who live or own property near Murphy Oil's Meraux refinery.

excerpts from 2-16-11 Joint Motion to Dismiss

1. To resolve this litigation amicably, Murphy and Concerned Citizens (collectively “the Parties”) conducted negotiations as part of Global Consent Decree negotiations with the Environmental Protection Agency (“EPA”) and, inter alia, the Louisiana Department of Environmental Quality (“LDEQ”). These negotiations resulted in a Consent Decree that the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Wisconsin entered on February 15, 2010 and made available on pacer today. (The Consent Decree was lodged in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Wisconsin because it governs both of Murphy’s U.S. refineries, one of which is located in Superior, Wisconsin.)

Tulane University's Environmental Law Clinic: Citizen's Guide to Environmental Protection in Louisiana

Environmental Integrity Project: Handbook for Citizen Participation in the Permitting of Oil Refineries under the New Source Review Provisions of the Clean Air Act

Clean Fuel Shouldnt Cost Air Quality

EPA Enforcement Alert - Acid Gas Flaring

Trends in EPA and State Refinery Flare Enforcement

New Subpart Ja Regulations

EPA announces Clean Air Act settlement agreement

Consent Decree Murphy Oil's Wisconsin and Louisiana refinery

additional copy Consent Decree

Public Comments Consent Decree

Citizen’s Enforcement Action
Concerned Citizens v Murphy Oil
Clean Air Act Case No CV-08-4986

Court Ruling -- Order and Reason

Complaint

Citizens' Enforcement Suit

Plaintiff Statement Undisputed Material Fact

Defendant Statement Disputed Material Fact

Oral Arguments

Defendant Supplemental Memo in Opposition to MSJ

Notice Of Violations

Supplemental NOV

2005 Listing

2006 Listing

2007 Spreadsheet

2007 Incidents

2007 Listing

2008 Spreadsheet

2008 Analysis

2008 Incidents

2008 Listing

2009 Incidents

2009 Spreadsheet

SO2 emissions in tons since clean fuels project {page 4}

December 2009 OSHA citation

2010 Incidents

Conveyance Notice Requirements
Notice Requirement for residual contaminant concentrations, since remedial standards were based upon industrial exposure scenario

Tank 200 - 4 area of contamination
July 2010 Enforcement Correspondence to State Attorney General, request concurrence on proposed settlement
July 2010 Hazardous Waste PostClosure Plan

Links to Documents

Student attorneys at Tulane's University's Environmental Law Clinic are taking on a giant oil company
Environment News Service
http://www.ens-newswire.com/ens/oct2009/2009-10-29-092.asp

Oil Co. Found Liable for Clean Air Act Violations
By SABRINA CANFIELD - Courthouse News Service
http://www.courthousenews.com/2010/02/05/24440.htm

Murphy Oil Liable for Air Permit Violations at Louisiana Refinery
Environment News Service
http://www.ens-newswire.com/ens/feb2010/2010-02-05-092.html

Murphy Oil U.S.A., Inc.'s Louisiana refinery found liable for Clean Air Act violations
Anne Rolfes - Louisiana Bucket Brigade
http://www.labucketbrigade.org/article.php?id=516

Murphy refinery found liable for Clean Air Act violations
Mark Schleifstein - Times Picayune
http://www.nola.com/business/index.ssf/2010/02/murphy_refinery_found_liable_f.html

-US court cites Murphy refinery for air pollution
Erwin Seba - Reuters
http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSN0410346020100204

http://www.tulane.edu/~telc/assets/pdfs/2-3-10_Order.pdf

Louisiana Department Environmental Quality

July 2010 2nd Quarter Compliance Order Progress

May 2010 Response

April 2010 Conference Report

April 2009 Report (Tank 200-7)

Fourth Quarter 2009 Update

Enforcement Meeting December 2009

Petition to Administration to Object 2009

Enforcement Meeting Air Permit September 2009

Flare Gas Recovery System Study

Hearing Request

Murphy's Response Air Permit CO/NOPP

Murphy's Response Water Permit CO/NOPP

Amended CO/NOPP Air Permit "A"
Amended CO/NOPP Air Permit "B"

August 27 2008 CO/NOPP Water Permit

August 29 2008 Compliance Order/ Notice of Potential Penalty Air Permit

La DEQ Website Documents EDMS AI # 1238
2005 2010

October 2005 Expansion Application
" Refinery Expansion / Coker and Associated Facilities" Project - Changes to Fugitive Components Based on information in meeting on September 6, 2005" LDEQ EDMS 33525655 page 312
Where were our residents on September 6, 2005 and in October 2005. Some still could not return to their homes due to the crude oil spill post-Hurricane-Katrina. While we were away, the 2005 Application was expanded to include a Coker and Associated Facilities.

August 26 2005 Addendum to Application

September 15 2005 Addendum to Application
Murphy Oil refers to the September 12, 2005 Meeting with Louisiana DEQ. September 12, 2005 was the date when, across the State of Louisiana, most public, private and parochial schools opened their doors to St Bernard Parish children displaced from the Hurricane Katrina. The application also suggests Murphy Oil is considering deletion of SRU #1 and construction of SRU #4, yet SRU #1 had not been on-line since the explosion of June 10, 2003.

August 15, 2005 Sulfur Recovery Unit down

News Article August 15 2005
Item #4 Page 3 "Firefighters used fans to ventilate the St Bernard Parish Health Unit.....on Palmisano Boulevard, where the odor was particularly strong...."

fine dust blanket

Subscribe to: Posts (Atom)

SOS St Bernard

The Port of New Orleans wants to change our quaint quiet neighborhoods into an industrial wasteland. There are more suitable locations and alternative regional options that would better serve Louisiana and our nation in international container terminaling. It doesn't take much imagination to picture what thousands of daily 18 wheeler trucks will do to the only two roads in St Bernard Parish, or how the increased rail traffic will contribute to the unacceptable night trains and lack of rail infrastructure. #SOStbernard https://www.facebook.com/SoStBernard/posts/pfbid0ytfGpvgfRVDxqyiKky76GUN8of7H3H4muajw91o75onZBFZ8ncZxdeUiyz7E53qel

We all need to do our part

_______ ________ ________ ______ Paraphrasing another Council member's comments on sulfur dioxide issue. Our community has made tremendous strides to get where we are today. We are the fastest growing parish in Louisiana. That accomplishment took a lot of effort from the federal, state and local governments. But the credit mostly belongs to our residents. Those who chose to return and rebuild, and to our new residents who believe that we have something special to offer. And we do. Since the construction of the main hurricane protection wall, the fear of a storm surge (like Katrina) has been minimalized. Our residents recently voted to fund our local government's take over management of the internal storm water system, and we are taking steps to improve our ability to handle major rain events. But one factor that is beyond our control that could have a devastating impact on our ability to grow, and retain residents, is the environment we live in. That's where the role of LDEQ and EPA is so important. You see, we are a RESIDENTIAL COMMUNITY that happens to have a couple of industrial residents. I say that because I hold industry as accountable to our community as I do our residents. I hold EPA and the LDEQ to the same standards. We don't have the technology, nor the expertise to handle environmental matters on our own. We will continue to do everything in our power to ensure that our community continues to grow and prosper, we just need EPA to do their part. A community that has economic development, but is losing residents, is not a community. That's not who we are. That's not where we want to go.

It will be of little avail to the people that the laws are made by men of their own choice if the laws be so voluminous that they cannot be read, or so incoherent that they cannot be understood; if they be repealed or revised before they are promulgated, or undergo such incessant changes that no man, who knows what the law is today, can guess what it will be tomorrow. Law is defined to be a rule of action; but how can that be a rule, which is little known, and less fixed?"

-- James Madison, Federalist #62

Public Participation

Public Participation

http://www.cleanwatershedcampaign.org/public-participation/

Over the years, this would be a familiar model of public participation. If
the panel was critical, its life was usually brief. Citizen oversight of one of
Michigan’s most powerful Fortune 500 companies would not be popular with
regulatory authorities, elected officials or more importantly, the Dow Chemical
Company......

Is this yet another exercise in futility or is it the finality so many of us
hope has arrived?

Do we participate in good faith? Eight years of Dow’s tactics of denial and
delay, eight years of frustration at the state’s impotence. Can the federal
government succeed? Can

the CAG succeed? Each individual active in this clean up will have to answer
these questions for themselves. I for one am not prepared to let any
opportunity to hold Dow and the EPA accountable slip away.

Terry Miller, Chairman Lone Tree Council

Land Use Plan Proposed

.

The St. Bernard Parish Government is proposing a new parish-wide Master Land Use Plan. Funding for this endeavor may be the Murphy Oil Crude Oil Spill "Cy Pres" Fund, according to the former Chairman of the Planning Commission. Councilmembers indicated they would have community meetings in each district for resident input and public information on the proposed changes to zoning and landuse throughout the parish.

http://www.docstoc.com/docs/123449388/SBPG-Cy-Pres-Funds-Request-for-Master-Land-Use-Plan

Waste Not Want Not

The waste water treatment plant design requires flows to the ponds and canals which will never fully meet LPDES requirements. [*] This is a violation of the Clean Water Act.

AND, it's completely avoidable.

In fact, the permit does not require sampling of the waste flow from the waste treatment facilities (south of Judge Perez) to the conveyance ditch which feeds the ponds (north of Judge Perez). The only sample of this flow is after it has been diluted with the ponds and before it is discharged into the local canals.

The applicant should be prohibited from ever sending chemicals or waste waters to any of the canals. The permit should prohibit -- under any conditions -- ever sending waste flows north of Judge Perez to the earthen conveyance ditches, storm water ponds or basins interconnected to the ponds, because any chemicals and materials sent north of the waste treatment facility goes into our neighborhoods and sensitive Central Wetlands.

The permit should prohibit storage and treatment of wastes north of Judge Perez. Once the refinery wastes are sent to the Secondary stormwater basins or ponds, it is impossible to send it back for treatment, because, by that time, it is already mixed with the pond's water.

Even the smallest portion of wastes will have long term effects on the ecology system. (page 13 Vol. 1)

[*] Murphy Oil USA Inc. Solid Waste permit application for secondary storm water basins or "ponds" (not yet public noticed)

Vol 1 http://edms.deq.louisiana.gov/app/doc/view.aspx?doc=7885455&ob=yes&child=yes

Vol 2 http://edms.deq.louisiana.gov/app/doc/view.aspx?doc=7885902&ob=yes&child=yes

The ponds discharge into the local canals, which meander through neighborhoods before discharging in the sensitive Central Wetlands, Bayou Bienvenue, and Lake Bornge. The plan to prevent the refinery process campus from flooding is to release process campus storm water through the same route; if there is a backup of storm water on the process campus, it overflows onto residential streets. The requirement to maintain the ponds with adequate freeboard is sometimes met with similar discharges. The design of the waste treatment facilities, when it rains or malfunctions is to store the harmful chemicals and wastes in an unlined ditch within very close proximity to a Church which hosts vacation bible school for children. It is impossible to send all the contaminants back from the ponds to the waste treatment facility for treatment and all these wastes and chemicals are eventually discharged into our neighborhoods or released into our air.

And it's completely avoidable by segregating process water and waste streams from storm water and instead piping malfunctions and "emergency" discharges to storage tanks, treatment ponds on the river side (away from human inhabitants), or into the river itself.

Allowing storage and partial treatment of the wastes in the storm water ponds exposes our residents to harmful and carcinogenic chemicals. Discharges have a lasting effect on the estuaries and environment.

DEQ must consider alternatives to sending chemicals and wastes into the canals and alternatives to storage of chemicals and wastes north of Judge Perez.

UPDATE MARCH 2012
DEQ concluded (page 80) that by providing personal income for the facility's permanent and contract employees outweigh the environmental costs.
http://edms.deq.louisiana.gov/app/doc/view.aspx?doc=8330751&ob=yes&child=yes

Public Meetings

Tuesday November 15, 2011 6:30pm

The monthly public meetings are open to the public and scheduled to convene on the third Tuesday of the month at the former Murphy Oil Administration Building, 1615 East Judge Perez Drive in Chalmette. .
*Updates on EPA Consent Decree Provisions
*Ambient air monitor station

http://lena.providenceeng.com/Default.aspx

The new air monitor on Ventura Drive in Chalmette samples our air for benzene, toluene, hydrogen sulfide, sulfur dioxide and other chemicals. The monitoring results post on the public website: http://lena.providenceeng.com/Default.aspx

Murphy Oil has also provided computer access in the public library.

Preservation Priority

The Villere Plantation was listed as a War of 1812 Preservation Priority in the 2007 American Battlefield Protection Program Report to Congress. "The priorities indicate which sites, in the opinion of the National Park Service, merit immediate preservation action, which need ongoing preservation action, which require additional study, and which are best suited for commemoration rather than preservation."

http://www.nps.gov/hps/abpp/Rev1812_Final_Report.pdf

The recent EPA Consent Decree with Murphy Oil agreed to a conservation servitude for the Villere Plantation land area of the crop fields drainage machine. The conservation servitude unfortunately expires in approximately 7 to 10 years along with the consent decree.

http://concernedcitizensaroundmurphy.blogspot.com/2011/04/villere-plantation-ruins.html

FOREVER GREENSPACE
Read OUR VISION

Our neighborhoods will no longer be referred to as the Murphy Oil buyout area, but rather will remain residential properties of the Floral Estates, James Place, Despaux and Ventura, and Sandra Park Subdivisions in the community of Chalmette, St. Bernard Parish, Louisiana

The neighborhoods around Murphy Oil's Louisiana refinery in Meraux have been revitalized since as early as Fall 2005 and are a vibrant part of the Southeast Louisiana community of St Bernard Parish which has experienced rapid repopulation and rebuilding, due to the spirit and commitment of returning residents.

We want what any other St. Bernard Parish neighborhood would want; clean air, clean water, and uncontaminated soil; and for families and friends to live peaceful lives. As we restore our homes and revitalize our community we are preserving the integrity of our residential neighborhoods and improving our quality of life.

We join with our neighbors for neighborhoods to effect the ever changing decisions that empact our community by encouraging citizen particpation and providing advocacy for all residents who are committed to return, rebuild and remain in St Bernard Parish Louisiana

Read more here
Jacob Drive Firestation and Murphy Oil Refinery Expansion

A petition is being circulated asking the St. Bernard Parish Council and Administration to oppose the sale of the Jacob Drive Fire Station to Murphy Oil Meraux Refinery.

Comprehensive plans based on Fire Insurance Rating Determinations for the placement of Fire Stations throughout St Bernard Parish are paramount to both fire protection level and 'first responder' response time and should be the predominate factor in this decision. Because these determinations are not yet available since the August 28, 2007 fire rating review, Summary No. 2037 has been tabled since August 2007 (see item #15 on the Agenda 08/21/07 ).

Should the Jacob Drive Firestation ever be taken out of service, the property should not be sold to the Murphy Oil Meraux Refinery for Expansion of facilities.

Please join us in opposing this sale by signing the petition and contacting your council representative. Fire Protection Level and 'first responder' response time are a priority.

Remember, the house you save may be your own.

To sign the petition contact CCAMLA1@gmail.com or

download the petition atSAVE OUR FIRESTATION

Letter to LDEQ (Jan. 24, 2008)

Your time and attention to this ongoing sediment problem is appreciated.

To our knowledge those properties on Lena Drive South were never seeded. For the life of me I cant understand why they just wont plant grass already; or at least grass seeds or plant grass sodding on the curb side of the property (in accordance with local parish ordinances which no parsh compliance officer seems to want to enforce on this project). Regardless, your efforts within your jurisdiction should bring a solution that residents have been asking for since the summer; keep the mud out the street and especially out of the storm drains.

Please keep in mind that what the corporation terms a buyout zone, we call home. It is our neighborhood, revitalized since the flood and crude oil spill. It is not a construction zone and its not for sale. Its a subdivision and we expect this corporation and its employees to demonstrate the same level of respect to its new neighbors that it would want in their own hometowns (where ever that maybe).

Thankyou again.

CCAM and Rediscover District C