Clean Air Violations Costly for Refiners in Kansas, Wyoming

Two petroleum refiners have agreed in separate settlements to install the controls and they will also pay a total of $1.38 million in fines to settle complaints by the federal government.

One of the companies, Frontier Oil based in Houston, Texas, owns and operates both Frontier Refining and Frontier El Dorado Refining. The company has agreed to pay a civil penalty of $1.23 million and spend $127 million in pollution control upgrades for alleged violations at these refineries in Cheyenne, Wyoming and El Dorado, Kansas.

The second refiner, the Wyoming Refining Company, has agreed to pay a civil penalty of $150,000 and spend about $14 million in similar upgrades for alleged violations at its Newcastle, Wyoming refinery.

The state of Wyoming joined the federal government in the agreement with WRC. Both the states of Wyoming and Kansas joined the federal government in the agreement with Frontier.

Frontier's refinery in El Dorado, Kansas (Photo courtesy Frontier Oil)

"Today's agreements will bring three important refineries, two in Wyoming and one in Kansas, into compliance with the Clean Air Act," said John Cruden, acting assistant attorney general for the Justice Department's Environment and Natural Resources Division.

"The settlements, done in coordination with the states of Wyoming and Kansas, require new pollution controls, reduce significant amounts of air pollutants, secure sizeable penalties, and will ultimately benefit the environment and impacted communities," Cruden said.

Advanced control technologies will be installed at all three refinery facilities that, when fully implemented, will reduce annual emissions of sulfur dioxide by 3,775 tons, nitrogen oxide by 2,100 tons and other pollutants by 1,200 tons. The refineries have a combined production capacity of about 168,000 barrels of oil per day.

"Today's settlements demonstrate EPA's continuing efforts to reduce emissions of nitrogen oxide and sulfur dioxide, which are the largest sources of pollution from refineries," said Catherine McCabe, acting assistant administrator for EPA's Office of Enforcement and Compliance Assurance.

"Nitrogen oxide and sulfur dioxide can cause severe respiratory problems and contribute to childhood asthma, smog and haze, as well as other health and environmental effects," she said.

In addition, each refinery will upgrade leak detection and repair practices to reduce harmful emissions from pumps and valves, implement programs to minimize the number and severity of flaring events, and adopt new strategies for ensuring continued compliance with benzene waste requirements under the Clean Air Act.

Flaring, the process by which byproduct gas from the refining process is burned off, can cause respiratory problems and worsen the symptoms of asthma.

As part of its settlement, Frontier agreed to implement environmentally beneficial projects valued at more than $1.3 million, including projects at its refineries to reduce emissions of volatile organic compounds by installing dome covers on refinery storage tanks. VOC's are a primary ingredient in the formation of smog.

Under the Clean Air Act, facilities that handle large amounts of chemicals are required to develop a risk management program that includes an accident prevention program and an emergency response plan to deal with accidental releases.

The settlement requires Frontier to correct deficiencies in its risk management program identified during a 2006 EPA inspection. The deficiencies include overdue inspections and tests of storage vessels containing toxic and flammable substances.

Today's agreements are the latest in a series of settlements under an EPA initiative to reduce air pollution from refineries nationwide. To date, 99 refineries operating in 29 states, or 88 percent of the nation's refining capacity, have agreed to federally enforceable judicial consent decrees that will reduce emissions and achieve compliance with the Clean Air Act.

The consent decrees, lodged today in the U.S. District Courts in Kansas and Wyoming, are subject to a 30-day public comment period and approval by the federal court.

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