[StBernard] DEQ looking into oily discharge from refinery into St. Bernard neighborhood during weekend rain

[Westley Annis]

DEQ looking into oily discharge from refinery into St. Bernard neighborhood
during weekend rain
By Chris Kirkham, The Times-Picayune 
December 14, 2009, 4:30PM
The state Department of Environmental Quality is investigating an oily
discharge from Chalmette's Murphy Oil refinery during Saturday night's
rainstorms that left nearby residents waking up to an acrid smell Sunday
morning.

DEQ spokesman Rodney Mallett said a nearby resident and the St. Bernard
Parish Fire Department called in a complaint Sunday morning. Murphy released
the storm water-oil mix overnight Saturday into the 20 Arpent Canal, a
drainage ditch that runs behind the refinery and numerous homes in the area.

Mallett said the agency has not yet determined how much water was released
during the storm. He did not say whether the agency would permit that amount
of oil in the water during a heavy rain event.

Carl Zornes, a spokesman for Murphy Oil, said the refinery is permitted to
do storm water discharges, but the company is unsure why the oil was mixed
in. He said it appears that the refinery's internal wastewater system mixed
in with the storm water system, which is only supposed to discharge
rainwater like a catch basin system in a neighborhood.

"It overflowed our internal capacity and got into the storm water system,"
Zornes said. "We're not capable of handling that amount of rain in such a
short amount of time."

Cleanup crews with U.S. Environmental Services were containing the oily
water in the canal and pumping it up into trucks Sunday, and they finished
working Monday.

Suzanne Kneale, a St. Bernard resident who has been following issues with
Murphy since a massive oil spill during Hurricane Katrina, asked why Murphy
did not notify residents about the release when they saw forecasts for heavy
rainfall.

She and other residents want more communication from Murphy and for the
company to find an alternative to dumping waste in a neighborhood canal.

We're asking for a long-term solution that such emergency discharges pump to
the river and not through the neighborhood," Kneale said.

St. Bernard Parish Fire Chief Thomas Stone said the department got the first
call from a resident about 7 a.m. Sunday.