Of the 13 U.S. oil refineries emitting high levels of this carcinogen, 5 are in Louisiana
Halle Parker
NEW ORLEANS A new effort to measure the levels of benzene, a cancer-causing air pollutant, along the perimeters of U.S. refineries found that five of the 13 facilities with the highest levels are in Louisiana.
What s more, the refinery with the worst emissions was Delek USA s Krotz Springs refinery, 45 minutes west of Baton Rouge along the Atchafalaya River, according to the report by the Environmental Integrity Project, a national environmental nonprofit.
There, fenceline monitors measured an average net concentration of 31.1 micrograms per cubic meter of benzene. That s more than triple the level allowed before the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency steps in.
Friday, April 30, 2021
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced on April 29, 2021, that it will be “taking important steps under the Toxics Release Inventory (TRI) to advance Environmental Justice, improve transparency, and increase access to environmental information.” EPA plans to expand the scope of TRI reporting requirements to include additional chemicals and facilities, including facilities that are not currently reporting on ethylene oxide (EtO) releases, and provide new tools to make TRI data more accessible to the public. U.S. facilities in different industry sectors must report annually how much of each listed chemical is released to the environment and/or managed through recycling, energy recovery, and treatment.
People of color and those with incomes below the poverty line are more likely to live near oil refineries where air monitors show benzene levels that should trigger federal action.
This is the third year of a U.S. Environmental Protection Agency program to monitor benzene emissions at the fence line of 142 American refineries, to make sure the concentration of the toxic chemical in the air do not exceed 9 micrograms per cubic meter in places where people live near the plants.
That concentration is about equivalent of 3 gallons worth of benzene in the 1 billion gallons of air that would fill the Superdome. It’s not considered a dangerous level for human health, but it is the “action level” the EPA set to require refineries to reduce their emissions.
WWL-TV reached out to all four companies with Louisiana refineries on the list – Delek US, Shell, Chalmette Refining and Phillips 66. Chalmette and Phillips 66 responded Friday and Delek US provided a comment Saturday.
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