Upset Air Pollution Episodes Poison Communities in 29 States

WASHINGTON, DC, August 19, 2004 (ENS) - Industrial facilities are getting away with accidental, unplanned air pollution releases, known as upset episodes, in 29 states, according to a fresh analysis of government data by the nonprofit and nonpartisan Environmental Integrity Project released on Wednesday.

The U.S Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is not acting to close the state loopholes that allow the upset air pollution episodes, even when they expose millions of Americans to benzene, butadiene and other cancer causing chemicals, the Environmental Integrity Project (EIP) found.

"My home is within a mile and a half of the Chalmette, Murphy and Mobil refineries," said Johnny Lewis, a member of the St. Bernard Citizens for Environmental Quality in Chalmette, Louisiana. "About 16 months ago one of the refineries blew up and, within an hour and 45 minutes, another one caught fire." Because these polluting incidents were unplanned, they are classed as upset episodes.

"The pollution from the refineries stinks. That’s how we know were breathing it in. We’re like the canaries in the coal mine," Lewis said. "No one really knows what breathing this soup of toxics does to a person."

In conducting research for their report, "Gaming the System: How the Off-the-Books Industrial Upset Emissions Cheat the Public Out of Clear Air," the EIP staff learned that many states fail to accurately track upsets or to include upset emissions in state inventories, on which pollution control plans are based.

Residents of Port Arthur, Texas protest emissions from nearby refineries and chemical plants. (Photo courtesy Refinery Reform Campaign)

The annual upset emissions from 10 of the 37 facilities in the study were greater than their total annual emissions. For instance, the upset emissions of carbon monoxide (CO) from Exxon Mobil’s Baton Rouge facility were almost three times its reported annual CO emissions.

More than half of the 37 facilities studied had upset emissions of at least one pollutant that were 25 percent or more of their total reported annual emissions of that pollutant.

Suzie Canales, who chairs the organization Citizens for Environmental Justice, in Corpus Christi, Texas, said, "The emissions aren’t just numbers. They’re affecting our health. Heart defects in babies in our area occur at two to six times the state registry rate. My grandbaby was born with a heart defect."

"I see the pollution coming out of these refineries and I ask myself - How is this affecting my family’s health? How is this affecting my community? How sick must we be before someone pays attention?" Canales asks.

Unplanned emissions are considered upset episodes and often are not even tracked and reported. (Photo courtesy FreeFoto)

Of the 26 states that responded to an EIP survey, half said they either do not include or only sometimes include upset emissions in annual inventories of pollution.

Kelly Haragan, counsel for the Environmental Integrity Project, said, "The off-the-books pollution caused by unreported and unpenalized upsets is at least as harmful as routine pollution and should not be allowed to evade emission limits designed to protect public health."

Upset emissions often expose communities to the carcinogens benzene and butadiene. Benzene is ranked by the EPA as one of two chemicals posing the greatest national cancer risk. Butadiene is listed by the EPA as one of the two most significant probable carcinogens contributing to regional cancer risk.

The 37 facilities studied in detail for the report released more than 167,133 extra pounds of benzene and 142,754 extra pounds of butadiene during one year’s worth of upsets.

The upset emissions from BASF in Port Arthur, Texas make it the sixth largest emitter of butadiene and the 12th largest emitter of benzene in the country, the EIP researchers report.

Oil refinery in California (Photo courtesy California Department of Toxic Substances Control)

Marilyn Bardet, a resident of the Bay Area community of Benicia, California said, "You can sometimes smell a terrible odor and feel a nasty taste in your mouth, but I’m just as concerned at all the things I can’t see that I know are occurring on a daily basis!"

The EIP study concludes that upset emissions "are largely avoidable" and lays much of the blame at the feet of management. "A handful of plants appear to have minimized upset emissions, thereby proving that pollution from upsets is not an inevitable product of manufacturing. Better management practices would significantly reduce upset emissions," the EIP says.

"Upsets are a significant problem for many areas, particularly the predominantly low income and communities of color surrounding many refinery and chemical complexes," said Haragan. "We hope this report will encourage the EPA, states and industry to act now to make these plants operate in a cleaner and safer way."

Founded by Eric Schaeffer, the Environmental Integrity Project was established in March 2002 to advocate for more effective enforcement of environmental laws. Schaeffer directed the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's Office of Regulatory Enforcement until 2002, when he resigned after publicly expressing his frustration with efforts of the Bush administration to weaken enforcement of the Clean Air Act and other laws.