[StBernard] Louisiana Bucket Brigade releases refinery report

Westley Annis westley at da-parish.com
Tue Dec 14 08:53:37 EST 2010


Louisiana Bucket Brigade releases refinery report
POSTED BY ALEX WOODWARD ON MON, DEC 13, 2010 AT 1:43 PM
Today, the Louisiana Bucket Brigade (LABB) released Common Ground II: Why
Cooperation to Reduce Accidents at Louisiana Refineries Is Needed Now, which
examines Louisiana's refineries from 2005 through 2009. Its findings include
under reported and underestimated accidents, high levels of pollution, and
ill equipped facilities in the face of severe (and not to severe) weather.

Read more about the report in this week's Gambit, which you can find here.
You also can read the PDF report on the Bucket Brigade's website.
http://www.bestofneworleans.com/gambit/bayou-polluters/Content?oid=1458780

Find a summary of some of the findings under the jump.

These figures are from the LABB's analysis of Department of Environmental
Quality reports from 2005-2009:

The state's biggest polluter is ExxonMobil. Its Baton Rouge refinery had
more than 500 accidents accounting for more than 4 million pounds of
pollution to the air. Chalmette Refining had more than 400 accidents,
sending 6 million pounds of pollution to the air and nearly 12 million
gallons to the ground and in water. Chalmette Refining's 11.6 million gallon
spill in 2008 dumped waste water into canals leading to Lake Borgne.

Accident reports show that the most common causes of refinery accidents
include equipment failure (16 percent), faulty piping or tubing (12
percent), or "no information given" (20 percent). ExxonMobil Baton Rouge
reported more than 250 accidents and Chalmette Refining reported more than
100 with no causal information given.

Weather - including hurricanes - accounted for 64 percent of accidents with
ground and water pollution, and 27 percent of accidents with air emissions.



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