[StBernard] St. Bernard Parish environmental group and state DEQ discuss air pollutant reductions

Westley Annis westley at da-parish.com
Wed Jan 2 20:35:39 EST 2013


St. Bernard Parish environmental group and state DEQ discuss air pollutant
reductions
By Benjamin Alexander-Bloch, NOLA.com | The Times-Picayune
on January 02, 2013 at 4:25 PM, updated January 02, 2013 at 6:18 PM Print

A St. Bernard Parish environmental group on Wednesday called on the state
Department of Environmental Quality to speed its plans to reduce the
emissions of pollutants from local industries as part of a report detailing
the group's findings on air quality in parts of the parish. DEQ already has
recommended to the federal Environmental Protection Agency that it designate
St. Bernard Parish as being out of compliance with standards for how much
sulphur dioxide gas is released in an hour.

DEQ will attempt to require compliance with the sulphur dioxide standard
sooner than the 2017 deadline, which the EPA is expected to set when it
issues its non-compliance directive, according to DEQ spokesman Rodney
Mallett. DEQ must submit a state implementation plan to the EPA by mid-2014
that demonstrates how St. Bernard will reach sulphur dioxide standards by
2017.

The EPA standard for sulphur dioxide was reduced to 75 parts per billion in
an hour in 2010, from an average of 140 parts per billion in 24 hours, a
standard that had been in effect since 1971.

"DEQ's plan, suggested in a recent Times-Picayune article, is to 'ratchet
down' sulfur pollution levels as the permits come up for renewal; that
process could take up to five years," said Suzanne Kneale, a member of the
local Concerned Citizens Around Murphy group that authored the recent
report, which the group states it compiled from air monitoring data. The
report has not been vetted by the DEQ or EPA.

But Mallett said on Wednesday that the DEQ is well aware of the problems and
is "trying to get ahead of the situation and look at some ways that we can
address the SO2 (sulphur dioxide) levels in that area."

"There's the official timeline, there's the official legal process, but we
are trying to get a jump on that," Mallett said.

Current scientific evidence links short-term exposures to sulphur dioxide,
ranging from 5 minutes to a day, with an array of adverse respiratory
effects, such as emphysema and bronchitis, as well as aggravating existing
heart disease. The effects can be more profound on asthmatics, children and
the elderly.

The three main facilities in the parish that have permits to release amounts
of sulphur dioxide are the ExxonMobil Chalmette Refinery, the nearby Rain
CII petroleum coke processing plant, and the Valero Energy Corp.'s Meraux
refinery, according to the state DEQ. Valero bought that Meraux refinery
from Murphy Oil USA in the fall of 2011.

The Concerned Citizens Around Murphy report is based on air monitor readings
at the three sites in St. Bernard: two state DEQ monitoring sites, in
Chalmette and Meraux, and one monitoring site operated by Valero near its
Meraux plant.

St. Bernard's air quality failed to meet that one-hour health standard for
sulphur dioxide on 29 days in 2012, according to the report. The highest
readings were from DEQ's site in the Chalmette Vista neighborhood -- with
readings of 241, 229, 216, 211, 184, 174, 164, and 148 parts per billion.

Kneale describes current air quality as a deterrent for people considering
whether to return to the parish, which was decimated by the levee breaches
during Hurricane Katrina in 2005 and which still lacks about half of its
pre-Katrina population. Along with sulphur dioxide, the group's report
describes how often air quality in the parish failed to meet standards for
particulate matter and hydrogen sulfide in 2012

Based on the air samples at community monitoring sites, the report states
that air quality in 2012 failed to meet pollution standards for hydrogen
sulfide on eight days, for particulate matter "PM2.5" on 34 days, and for
particulate matter "PM10" on six days.

Long-term exposure to hydrogen sulfide -- a color, flammable gas -- can
cause eye irritation, cough, headache and nasal blockage, along with
possible other symptoms, according to the Centers for Disease Control and
Prevention.

Particulate matter, or particle pollution, is a mixture of solids and liquid
drops in the air that can come in a wide range of sizes, with "PM10"
representing particles between 10 micrometers in diameter and 2.5
micrometers in diameter -- smaller than the width of a single human hair.
The EPA is particularly concerned about particles 10 micrometers in diameter
or smaller because those are the particles that generally pass through the
throat and nose and enter the lungs.

Particles 2.5 micrometers in diameter or smaller -- or PM2.5 -- also called
fine particles, often are found in smoke and haze.




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