real time monitoring

Jun 4, 2015 Environmental Justice in Action blog

Real Time Monitoring: A Game-Changer for Industrial Fence Line Communities

by Eduardo (Jay) Olaguer, PhD

Our field experiment, known as the Benzene and other Toxics Exposure (BEE-TEX) Study, is very different from air pollution studies in the past.  The study focused on the development and demonstration of updated methods for real time monitoring and modeling of health-threatening air contaminants and air quality at the neighborhood level.  HARC and its partner research institutions, including UCLA, the University of North Carolina, and Aerodyne Research, Inc., applied the latest real time monitoring and modeling techniques to the measurement and attribution of ambient exposure to air toxics, such as the notorious carcinogen benzene.  The ultimate goal of the project is to help improve air quality and public health in those and other near-industry neighborhoods.

for better or worse

 May 2015 Reformer unit unexpected shutdown, followed by Hydrocracker process gas flaring due to power outage, flaring at north flare

Feb 15 2015 R O S E Unit fire evacuated workers

Feb 25 gas unit had to vent to flare

Feb 12 gas unit had to vent to flare

Feb 10 gas unit had to vent to flare

Jan 9 gas unit had to vent to flare

Jan 15 2015 emergency incident amine unit

Dec 16 2014  fuel odor

Nov 28 2014 hydrocracker project startup

Nov 14 2014 flare on fire

Oct 17 2014 smoke at flares

Oct 13 2014 Fire Dept received numerous complaints of odors

Sept 8 2014 diesel odor in air

Sept 3 2014 flaring and vibrations

August 31 2014 Sheriff Dept asking about smoke from flare

Aug 31 2014 billowing smoke from flare

Aug 30 2014 flaring

Aug 28 – 29 same nasty odor in neighborhood

Aug 28 – 29  a worker’s personal hydrogen sulfide detector alarm was set off

Aug 27 flaring

Aug 27 hydrogen sulfide odor

Aug 26 sitting on the flare more frequently, odor and noise

Aug 26 - Aug 28 EPA Risk Management Inspection Report with one dozen areas of concern

Aug 16 2014 sulfur dioxide at flare

Aug 15 2014 odor in air assumption that it is Hydrogen sulfide

Aug 3 odors again, cannot be outside, headache, sinus and coughing

Aug 2 nose bleeds

Aug 1 lots of flaring

July 29 -31 sounds like an airport

July 29 flaring for extended period of time

June 25 oil sheen in river

June 2 flaring, black smoke, odors and vibration

June 2 alky unit sent to flare, event lasted until June 3

April 24 very strong chemical smell, unexpected shutdown of benzene unit

April 21 boom heard, flaring at high velocity

April 21 rumbling from flare, associated odors

April 20 unexpected shutdown SRU

April 12 putrid, nauseating odor

April 2 hydrogen sulfide odors

Feb 23 2014 flammable gas emissions at flare

Feb 10 2014 SRU shutdown

Feb 7 sulfur dioxide at flare

Feb 7 SRU shutdown

Feb 2 sour garbage natural gas odor, nauseated, coughing, loud noise, burnt smell, getting worse

Feb 1 strong sulfur odor, getting worse, not able to have outside ventilation, two weeks prior the odor infiltrated home

Jan 18 no windows opened in house last three days and can still smell chemicals in air. Air quality is terrible

Jan 8  2014 flaring with obnoxious noise and pungent odors; reports of vibrations to homes  sulfur dioxide permit limits violated rates at the flare  

 and these are just the ones reported to LDEQ

workers matter

Susan Criss, The Daily News

http://www.galvnews.com/opinion/columns/free/article_05dc5316-b59b-11e4-9779-8361315590f0.html

"These companies invest in chamber of commerce activities and advertising dollars to prove their support of their neighboring communities. They send representatives to chamber and charity events to show they care. Talent, resources and dollars are spent promoting their corporate good will and good citizen images.

Yet they refuse to spend money maintaining refinery machinery in decent enough condition to prevent their workers from being killed. ……………………………….. in Texas City on March 23, 2005 the BP plant exploded in one of the worst refinery accidents in United States history. Fifteen workers died and more than 180 were injured. Some of the injured were burned beyond recognition.

[reports] … revealed a culture of complacency toward worker safety at that refinery contributed to the disaster. Worker fatigue resulting from excessive overtime hours was another problem cited.

Why are the USW members on strike? Because their workers do matter."

rain event flooding occurs too

Union of Concerned Scientists
February 25 2015 Gretchen Goldman, lead analyst center for Science and Democracy


“Our results were startling,” said Christina Carlson, the UCS report’s first author, “all five refineries analyzed face risks from storm surge and Valero’s Meraux facility may even be inundated by 2050 because of sea level rise alone.


http://blog.ucsusa.org/stormy-seas-rising-risks-new-analysis-shows-undisclosed-climate-change-impacts-at-oil-refineries-639







Here in St Bernard Parish, Louisiana the Valero Meraux refinery had repeated reports of processing campus flooding during afternoon rain showers, which can total up to eight inches and cause overflow flooding from the refinery into our neighborhoods.  The last couple of years have been droughts so its not easy to determine if so called improvements to storm water management have actually made a difference.  We wont know until the next rain event flood.

worker safety

United Steelworkers issue strike notices in Louisiana

by bobby lamb

http://www.theneworleansadvocate.com/news/11660572-123/united-steelworkers-issue-strike-notices


The steelworkers say the sticking point doesn’t involve wages, but rather staffing and workloads, health and safety issues and health care.


“We’re committed to reaching a settlement that works for both parties,” said USW Vice President Tom Conway, “but adequate staffing levels, worker fatigue and other important safety issues must be addressed.”


“Our members are speaking loud and clear,” said Gary Beevers, USW International vice president who oversees the union’s oil sector. “If it takes a global fight to win safe workplaces, so be it.”

alarms and siren

Valero Energy's Meraux petroleum refinery signaled alarms for plant workers due to an unexpected fire in the R O S E unit, which was reported extinguished within ten minutes.


Residents were the first to notify local fire and sheriff departments of the reported worker evacuation of Area 2 of the refinery.  If the plant alarms automatically signaled the local authorities, that would bring about much needed improvements for community safety.

public participation

Public Participation


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


The EPA organized a community group to evaluate the success of remediation [by Dow Chemical]. It met a few times, provided critical commentary, and was dropped as Dow completed its EPA required action. 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...... Dow itself had (has) a community advisory panel. Its goal was (is) to get honest feedback from the community as to how it was performing as a corporate citizen. Mary Sinclair, Midland citizen, science and communication adviser to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, didn’t last a year on the panel. She recognized that the company was not forthcoming in information requests or responsive to suggestions – she left.


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