[StBernard] Murphy Oil will pay millions for releasing pollutants

[Westley Annis]

Murphy Oil will pay millions for releasing pollutants

Published: Wednesday, February 16, 2011, 3:00 PM     Updated: Wednesday,
February 16, 2011, 4:52 PM

 By Benjamin Alexander-Bloch, The Times-Picayune 

Due in part to numerous Clean Air Act violations by its oil refinery in St.
Bernard Parish, a federal judge this week signed off on a settlement that
will require Murphy Oil USA to pay $1.25 million, invest more than $142
million in new equipment to reduce future pollution at its plants and spend
at least $1.5 million towards beneficial environmental projects statewide.

The consent decree comes a year after U.S. District Judge Sarah Vance found
Murphy liable for 21 violations of the federal pollution law  for releasing
more chemicals than allowed under state permits for the company's Meraux oil
refinery. That lawsuit was filed in 2008 by the St. Bernard- based Concerned
Citizens group,  represented by the Tulane Environmental Law Clinic.

In September - seven months after that Vance ruling - the U.S. Environmental
Protection Agency, Louisiana Department of Environmental Quality, and the
state of Wisconsin, filed suit against Murphy oil for violations of the
EPA's Clean Air Act.

In addition to its refinery in Meraux, the oil company, based in El Dorado,
Ark., has one in Superior, Wisconsin. Both refineries released excessive
emissions, the suit stated.

The Meraux plant processes about 125,000 barrels of crude oil per day
compared with the 35,000 from the Wisconsin plant, according to the court
records. They process the oil into various products such as gasoline and
diesel fuel.

Over the last few months, the consent decree was signed off on by various
Murphy Oil representatives, EPA and Louisiana Department of Environment
Quality officials, and U.S. Department of Justice attorneys in Wisconsin.

On Tuesday, a federal judge in Wisconsin signed that consent decree into
law. 

And on Wednesday, in light of the consent decree, the Concerned Citizens
group filed a motion to dismiss its own suit against the Murphy Oil refinery
in Meraux.

The suit had asked a federal judge to force the EPA to rescind an air permit
the state had granted in October 2009 for a processing unit for low-benzene
gasoline products. The Concerned Citizens group contended the permit should
be rescinded because it was based on miscalculated pollution estimates.

The settlement is part of an EPA petroleum refinery initiative that has
resulted in 27 settlements with 104 refineries across the nation - more than
90 percent of the nation's refining capacity.

The goal is to reduce emissions of harmful chemicals including sulfur
dioxide, nitrogen oxide, volatile organic compounds and benzene, which can
cause various respiratory problems, dizziness, headaches and cancer, in the
case of benzene.

Murphy announced this summer that it plans to sell the refineries in Meraux
and Wisconsin. The settlement would still apply to the two refineries if
they are sold.

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