Victims of CITGO Petroleum Crimes Asked to Step Forward

CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas, September 21, 2007 (ENS) - Even though they may not receive financial payments for doing so, people who lived near the CITGO Corpus Christi, Texas East Plant Refinery between January 1994 and January 2003 may want to talk to officials of the U.S. Department of Justice.

In June, a jury convicted CITGO Petroleum Corporation and CITGO Refining and Chemicals Company L.P. for illegally operating two massive tanks at their Corpus Christi refinery during that time. The tanks were the source of emissions including benzene, a known carcinogen, that may have affected people in the surrounding communities of Hillcrest and Oak Park.

Officials from the Environmental Crimes Section of the Justice Department and the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Texas will hold a two-day community meeting next week in Corpus Christi as part of the department's obligations under the Crime Victim Rights Act to identify, locate and notify persons who may have been victims of crime.

The meeting will take place Tuesday, September 25 from 9 am to 3 pm and Wednesday, September 26 from 3 pm to 9 pm at the Oveal Williams Senior Living Center at 1414 Martin Luther King in Corpus Christi.

The purpose of the community meeting is to identify people who may have been victims of CITGO’s criminal conduct. Those who have been affected by odors coming from CITGO may be victims.

The Department of Justice intends to advise the U.S. District Court at the sentencing hearing of victims who have come forward. Sentencing is scheduled for October 18 before Judge John Rainey. The Justice Department says it will not be seeking financial payments for any individual victims.

CITGO Petroleum Corporation and CITGO Refining and Chemicals Company L.P. were convicted on June 27, 2007 of two felony counts each for operating tanks 116 and 117 at the CITGO East Plant Refinery in Corpus Christi as oil water separators without required emission control equipment in violation of the federal Clean Air Act.

Witnesses at the trial testified that emissions from the tanks could be detected in Oak Park and Hillcrest in the form of odors. Emissions from tanks 116 and 117 would present a sweet or petroleum-based smell.

Public records of the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality, TCEQ, show that CITGO operated an acid gas flare and a sour water gas flare in violation of a TCEQ permit. The permit only authorized emergency use of the flares, but the refinery used the flares as live process flares.

As a result, according to CITGO’s statement, the flares emitted hydrogen sulfide and sulfur dioxide. The hydrogen sulfide emissions would present a rotten egg type smell. The flares were operated in violation of the permit between at least January 1998 and January 2003.

Persons who believe they are victims of the criminal conduct of CITGO Petroleum Corporation and CITGO Refining and Chemicals Company L.P. will be asked to complete a Victim Impact Statement which will be presented to the U.S. Probation Office and the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Texas for consideration at the sentencing. The Justice Department is asking prospective victims to bring any information that supports their claim. For more information call Special Agent De’Montra Rainey at 361-888-3283.

In its defense, CITGO says it was charged with "alleged violations of complex, convoluted environmental regulations" and that the tanks were not "oil-water separators" as defined by federal regulation.

CITGO says it will appeal the verdict on charges relating to the benzene emissions. "Since at least 1993," the company argues, "CITGO had advised state and federal regulators, including the EPA, as to the method by which it was calculating the amount of benzene present in certain waste water streams at the refinery."

After a 1998 inspection, the company says, "the EPA expressly found that CITGO was in compliance" with its regulations.

"In 2001, two years before the government’s investigation even began, CITGO changed its methodology to the methodology the government now advocates," the company said.

"It is unfortunate that the Justice Department has chosen to take the unprecedented step of pursuing criminal charges on matters that are purely regulatory in nature and that are inconsistent with applicable EPA regulations," CITGO said in a statement in June.

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