Texas Refinery Area Meets Federal Air Quality Standard

BEAUMONT, Texas, February 29, 2008 (ENS) - State and federal environmental officials joined representatives from the Beaumont-Port Arthur area today to celebrate the region reaching the national eight-hour standard for ozone.

The area covers Hardin, Jefferson, and Orange counties and contains some of the largest petrochemical plants in the world.

"This is an important clean air milestone for everyone in the Beaumont-Port Arthur area," said U.S. EPA Regional Administrator Richard Greene. "EPA is pleased to recognize the committed efforts of the many residents and industry leaders who have worked side-by-side with air quality staff at the local, state and federal levels to reduce ozone in the region."

"I want to congratulate all of our partners in the Beaumont-Port Arthur area for achieving this significant clean air standard," said TCEQ Chairman Buddy Garcia. "This community's can-do spirit has produced real results that mean reduced ozone levels and improved air quality for all of the citizens in the Golden Triangle region."

ExxonMobil Chemical's largest synthetics plant is in Beaumont, Texas. (Photo courtesy ExxonMobil)

At ground level, pollutants released from vehicles, factories and other sources combine to form the ozone mixture commonly known as smog. Smog can cause respiratory problems including coughing, wheezing, shortness of breath and chest pain.

The eight-hour ozone standard is based on averaging air quality measurements over eight-hour blocks of time. A community meets the eight-hour standard when the three-year average of the annual fourth highest daily maximum eight-hour ozone concentration measured at each monitoring site is less than 0.08 parts per million, ppm.

"We are proud of our local elected officials who have worked tirelessly in stressing the importance of attaining this goal and we will continue this process into the future to guarantee clean air for our region," said Shaun Davis, executive director of the South East Texas Regional Planning Commission.

"This achievement shows the commitment of our citizens, industry leaders and local government to work together through positive programs like the Ozone Action Day Program."

"The South East Texas Regional Planning Commission will continue its efforts to encourage proactive voluntary initiatives like the Ozone Action Day Program, promotion of alternative fueled vehicle use, carpool and vanpool programs," said Bob Dickinson, the commission's director of transportation and environmental resources.

Every little bit helps to reduce ozone, but the big players in the Beaumont-Port Arthur air quality effort are the petrochemical plants.

Federal regulators have cracked down on refineries for air pollution violations in the past few years, spurred by the complaints of health problems by citizens groups such as the Refinery Reform Campaign and by lawsuits from groups such as the Sierra Club, which won a court order in 2001 changing the area's classification by the EPA from "moderate" to "serious."

The serious designation spurred renewed efforts to meet the EPA standard on the part of the area's industrial facilities.

When refineries emitted too much pollution, the EPA took them to court. In May 2007, Total Petrochemical USA Inc. agreed to a legal settlement that required the company to pay a $2.9 million penalty and upgrade pollution controls at its Port Arthur refinery,

Total is making changes to its facility, estimated to cost $37 million, to reduce the emissions of air pollutants. The company also agreed to upgrade leak detection and repair practices and to implement programs to minimize the flaring of hazardous gases, which can cause serious respiratory problems and worsen asthma.

Now one of the largest refineries in the area is expanding to become the largest refinery in the United States. Motiva Enterprises announced last September that it will build a 325,000 barrel-per-day capacity expansion at its Port Arthur refinery, the equivalent of building the first new refinery in the country in more than 30 years.

The company said in a statement that the expansion will not increase air emissions. "Motiva's expansion will lower most types of emissions from refinery operations on a per barrel basis by utilizing advanced technology in all new system installations and replacing existing systems. The expansion of the refinery will decrease emissions from present day levels for ozone precursors, specifically nitrogen oxides and volatile organic compounds."

Motiva's new production capacity is expected to be online in 2010.

Although it is now in attainment for ozone, the EPA proposed to reclassify the region to "moderate" in October 2007 because the region's ozone levels averaged 0.085 ppm from 2004 to 2006, narrowly missing the 0.08 standard by the June 15, 2007 attainment deadline. EPA is required to reclassify the area based on the previous data.

The fact that Beaumont-Port Arthur attained the standard by the end of 2007 provides "great optimism that air quality in the region is on track," Greene said.

Now that the region has reached ozone attainment levels, officials will continue to work to ensure the area remains in compliance. But now the attainment bar may be raised again.

Last year, the EPA proposed to again strengthen the eight-hour standard for ground-level ozone to within a range of 0.070 to 0.075 ppm. A final decision on a new eight-hour standard is expected by March 12, 2008.

See ENS past coverage of Beaumont-Port Arthur air quality here.

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