[StBernard] Press Release: Air Pollution Suit

[Westley Annis]

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Friday November 21, 2008 .

Concerned Citizens Around Murphy Filed Federal Air Pollution Suit Against Murphy Oil USA, Inc.

Louisiana residents filed a citizens enforcement suit Friday in Federal District Court against Murphy Oil USA, Inc. alleging violations of the Clean Air Act at the Murphy Oil Meraux refinery. The violations include numerous incidents that released tons of sulfur dioxide and other harmful pollutants such as hydrogen sulfide and volatile organic compounds into the neighborhood's air.

Meraux, LA November 21, 2008 – Tulane Environmental Law Clinic, on behalf of Concerned Citizens Around Murphy (CCAM), filed a federal lawsuit today against Arkansas-based Murphy Oil USA, Inc. for violations of its air permit at its Meraux refinery.

This citizens enforcement suit is a last resort to a year-long attempt by the neighborhood association CCAM to obtain solutions to the refinery’s pollution and to preserve the residents' rights to clean air. CCAM seeks declaratory and injunctive relief that would provide continual compliance assurances, and civil penalties—paid to the U.S. Treasury— as high as $32,500 per day for each violation.

The Murphy Oil Meraux refinery allegedly violated the Clean Air Act over 130 times since October 2003 by releasing tons of sulfur dioxide and other harmful pollutants including hydrogen sulfide and volatile organic compounds in amounts that exceed their permit limits. The lawsuit identifies incidents where Murphy Oil released pollutants at a pounds-per-hour rate exceeding its permit limits often by a factor of a hundred, a thousand, and even a million. On a few occasions, the Murphy Meraux refinery exceeded its annual tons-per-year permit limit in a single emission event. The Louisiana Department of Environmental Quality's public records note two of those plant malfunctions are still under investigation.
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Residents believe these toxic releases adversely affect the community's health and safety. The concerned citizens seek declaratory and injunctive relief to force Murphy Oil to comply with their federal air permits and to deter future violations. The neighbors around Murphy's Meraux refinery view their enforcement action no differently than what other communities and homeowner associations do to protect their rights when a neighbor violates the law. CCAM member Suzanne Kneale explains, "What we have done is taken reasonable steps to assure the health and safety of our children. Murphy Oil left us no other course of action but to preserve our rights through the justice system." 

Resident John Williams said, "The smells are so bad, we quit cooking outside. For a bar-b-que, we couldn’t even stay outside to enjoy it." John and his wife Kerry Williams have lived in the shadow of the Meraux refinery for nearly 22 years and fear the health effects of breathing their pollutants.

Other residents believe the refinery violated their rights by sending pollution across the fenceline. "Residents want the oil company to control their chemical discharges, noise and flaring within the limits of the law as they agreed to when they applied for air permits," stated Mike Sherwood, a life-long resident of St. Bernard Parish and a member of both the Meraux refinery's Citizens Advisory Panel and St. Bernard Parish's Murphy Oil Buffer Zone Committee.
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Citing one of the recurring mishaps, such as broken compressors, Mike Miller asserts the vibrations from these malfunctions usually occur late at night and wake his family. "I've called them several times when the vibrations happen and they say, 'Everything is fine. We just blew a valve.' But you go outside and the flames are blowing 60 feet in the air." 

"It's difficult to raise our children here without the fear that Murphy’s emissions will compromise their development or give them cancer," Kneale added.

										
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