[StBernard] DEQ requires audit of St. Bernard Parish petroleum plant's chemical emissions

Westley Annis westley at da-parish.com
Thu May 16 08:19:37 EDT 2013


DEQ requires audit of St. Bernard Parish petroleum plant's chemical
emissions

Print By Benjamin Alexander-Bloch, NOLA.com | The Times-Picayune
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on May 15, 2013 at 4:45 PM, updated May 16, 2013 at 12:08 AM
Two months after St. Bernard Parish petroleum coke processing plant
officials admitted that they are responsible for "the lion's share" of the
sulphur dioxide emissions in the area, the state Department of Environmental
Quality enforcement and permit officials on Wednesday spoke with parish
commissioners about ways to curtail the Rain CII Carbon's Chalmette
emissions. In about three weeks, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is
expected to formally designate St. Bernard as being out of compliance with
federal sulphur dioxide health standards.



The discussions on Wednesday were twofold: about the impending
out-of-compliance sulphur dioxide designation, and about other chemicals
that Rain CII might be emitting above the permitting standards, including
sulfuric and hydrochloric acid and other sulfuric compounds. Now, DEQ has
required Rain CII to go through an audit of its Chalmette facility involving
potential higher-than-allowed emissions of those other chemicals.

That audit must be completed by June 14, according to Cheryl Sonnier Nolan,
DEQ's assistant secretary of the office of environmental compliance, which
handles enforcement and monitoring issues. Rain CII must submit that audit
to the DEQ by Aug. 13. By Nov. 11, Rain CII must apply for any permit
changes needed as a result of that audit.

"We want to make sure we have the most accurate information about the
emissions at this facility as possible so that we can regulate them
properly," Nolan told the parish Housing, Redevelopment and Quality of Life
Authority Commission on Wednesday.

Commissioner Polly Campbell said she's worried that any needed permit
changes won't occur soon enough. "We have to breathe it in the meantime;
that's my concern as a mother and a member of this community," Campbell
said.

She said that she worries about "waking up 25 years from now and saying,
'Oh, I have cancer.'"

However, the Rain CII plant audit involving other chemicals and the
subsequent permit applications will not apply to the new sulphur dioxide
standard that has placed Rain CII out of compliance.

The state has 18 months after the official out-of-compliance designation to
submit an implementation plan, which must show how the parish can reach
compliance with the new sulphur dioxide standards within five years from the
designation - or likely by June 2018.

At the March 13 meeting when he admitted that Rain CII was emitting most of
the sulphur dioxide emissions in the parish, Larry Minton, Rain CII's
corporate director, said that to reach attainment, the plant was going to
install a sulphur dioxide scrubber that would reduce a large amount of its
sulphur dioxide.

Minton said such a scrubber could get rid of 50 percent to 90 percent of
Rain CII's sulphur dioxide emissions, but what type of scrubber Rain CII
chooses likely will depend on the sulphur dioxide emissions-reduction plan
that the state must submit to the EPA, by December 2014.

Minton said at the March meeting that Rain CII expected to chose a scrubber
model by March 2014, and that by March 2016, he expected that new scrubber
would be up and running.

In order to officially reach attainment of the sulphur dioxide standard, St.
Bernard must meet that new standard for three straight years.

Rain CII officials also were asked to come and speak to the parish Housing,
Redevelopment and Quality of Life Authority Commission on Wednesday, but
they did not show up, irritating several of the commissioners.

"If they don't come to these meeting, then they not doing their due
diligence for St. Bernard Parish," Commissioner Earl Dauterive said. "I
think it's a cowardly act."




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