[StBernard] Sulphur dioxide levels spiked right after St. Bernard Parish industrial plant restarted

[Westley Annis]

Sulphur dioxide levels spiked right after St. Bernard Parish industrial
plant restarted

The Chalmette Vista monitoring station that picked up the recent sulphur
dioxide overages. (Photo by Louisiana Department of Environmental Quality)
 By Benjamin Alexander-Bloch, NOLA.com | The Times-Picayune 
on February 26, 2013 at 7:37 PM, updated February 26, 2013 at 8:42 PM Print

The evening after the Rain CII petroleum coke processing plant in St.
Bernard Parish started up after a hiatus of nearly a month, there were
increases in local sulphur dioxide levels above the health standard set by
the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. A Rain CII spokeswoman said
Tuesday that the facility had "a normal start-up" and was operating within
its permit parameters with no flares or other unusual activity.

The Rain CII plant in Chalmette shuttered on Jan. 24; it began operating
again this past Thursday, 28 days later.

The plant stopped operations last month after the state Department of
Environmental Quality revoked a variance that could have caused the plant to
emit more sulphur dioxide than allowed. Because of that move, the plant had
to shut down to repair a boiler and some other equipment, an attorney
representing Rain CII said at the time.

Elizabeth Clouatre, a spokeswoman for the Rain CII plant, confirmed on
Tuesday that the plant "began the 'start up' process Thursday (Feb. 21) at
11 a.m."

About eight hours later, the DEQ Ch_Vista monitor near that plant measured
sulphur dioxide at 108.8 parts per billion and at 104.7 parts per billion
around 8 p.m. The EPA health standard for sulphur dioxide is 75 parts per
billion an hour.

Those sulphur dioxide exceedances are the latest in a string of such local
overages.

And on Feb. 7, because of increasing instances of sulphur dioxide releases
above that hourly standard in the past few years, the EPA told Gov. Bobby
Jindal that it intends to formally designate the parish as being out of
compliance with the standard.

Such a designation, referred to as "nonattainment," means the state will
have to develop a remedy, likely requiring the parish's three main emitters
to cut back on such releases by creating more restrictive permits.

The nonattainment designation, which could last up to five years, also
likely would prevent new sulphur dioxide emitting businesses from coming
into the parish.

The EPA is expected to makes its final determination in June. Only ten other
entire counties throughout the country have been targeted for a similar
classification.

Three industrial plants in St. Bernard are permitted to release sulphur
dioxide into the atmosphere - the Rain CII plant, the ExxonMobil Chalmette
Refinery and Valero Energy Corp.'s Meraux refinery.