[StBernard] Sulfur dioxide levels decrease in WBR, remain a problem in St. Bernard

[Westley Annis]

Raising the stack at the calcining plant does not reduce the amount of pollution released. Changing the permitted levels will.  Yet, LDEQ has stated they cannot change the state plan until EPA's Official Designation, which is past the June 4 2013 due date.  How much longer is SBPG and its residents going to wait for EPA to act?  
 
According to EPA, in 2008 the annual SO2 emissions at Rain CII Carbon were 4,284 tons per year; that is 8,568,000 pounds sulfur dioxide!! Eight MILLION five hundred sixty-eight thousand pounds!! Yet, the calcining’s plant regulatory permit allows up to 7,000 tons per year SO2 or 14,000,000 !!  Perhaps the permit limits need to be lowered? 
Neither Valero Energy's Meraux refinery nor Rain CII have scrubbers; Valero ‘s 2011 consent decree requires a Flare Gas Recovery system by 2017. Valero Energy’s Meraux plant, a 125,000 barrels per day refinery, is permitted up to 753 tons per year SO2; Valero's newly permitted hydrocracker expansion adds over 39 tons per year SO2 and plans to add over 25 tons per year SO2 with a hydrogen plant through a partnership with Air Products. 
ExxonMobil’s Chalmette plant, with 192,000 barrels per day capacity, is permitted up to 462 tons per year SO2.  ExxonMobil was not running all units due to a business model that shut two units in 2010.  Large turnarounds and other factors account for the difference in permitted limits and total released.  
.
-----Original Message-----
Sulfur dioxide levels decrease in WBR, remain a problem in St. Bernard BY AMY WOLD Advocate staff writer July 27, 2013

 "Immediately after they put the controls on we saw drastically reduced numbers." Sam Phillips,  assistant secretary with the state Department of Environmental Quality

In 2011, West Baton Rouge Parish was set to join St. Bernard Parish as the two areas of the state facing new restrictions because of sulfur dioxide levels that are above the federal standard.

However, the Rhodia facility put in control measures for sulfur dioxide several years ago, and the levels of the pollution dropped below the new federal standard in time to be considered by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.

"Immediately after they put the controls on, we saw drastically reduced numbers," said Sam Phillips, assistant secretary of the state Department of Environmental Quality.

So instead, St. Bernard Parish is the first, and only, parish in the state found to not be in compliance with a new federal standard for sulfur dioxide pollution, which can cause breathing problems, especially for sensitive populations.

EPA sent the state a letter Thursday evening that agrees with the state recommendation that one monitor at Chalmette-Vista, 24 E. Chalmette Circle, fails to meet a new 2010 one-hour standard for sulfur dioxide.


>From 1971 to 2010, the federal standard for this pollution was measured 

>on a

24-hour average. During that time, an air monitor cannot measure more than
140 parts per billion more than once per year.

"We've never had anyone even close to the 24-hour standard," Phillips said.

However, in 2010, the EPA put together a new, more stringent standard that looks at an hourly average that can't go above 75 parts per billion.

Anne Rolfes, founding director of the Louisiana Bucket Brigade, said the designation and the reductions in sulfur dioxide releases has been a long time coming.

She said she worked with the community near the industrial sites in the early 2000s when resident Ken Ford was leading the effort to get improvements. The community even set up its own air monitoring equipment, Rolfes said.

"And it was pinging off the charts for SO2 (sulfur dioxide)," Rolfes said.

Then, as part of a consent decree with the Chalmette Refinery several years ago, the state made the facility put up an air monitor. It's that air monitor that has been registering at above-federal-standard levels, resulting in the parish falling out of compliance with federal standards, she said.

"They do have a sulfur dioxide problem there," Rolfes said.

While it can be difficult to pinpoint the source of some pollution, such as ozone, sulfur dioxide is mainly released by industry and is easier to track.

In the case of St. Bernard Parish, there are three industrial facilities that contribute to the sulfur dioxide issue with Rain CII Carbon being by far the largest, Phillips said.

The other two are Valero Refinery and Chalmette Refinery.

However, facilities in St. Bernard Parish already have been working on reducing the amount of sulfur dioxide being released, Philips said.

DEQ entered into an agreement with Rain CII Carbon in June whereby the state limited the amount of sulfur dioxide that can be released.

"They are the lion's share of the SO2 problem in St. Bernard Parish,"
Phillips said.

Although the facility's permit allows the release of 2,500 pounds of sulfur dioxide per hour, the new agreement limits that to 1,200 pounds per hour, Phillips said.

Larry Minton, director of environmental, safety and health with Rain CII Carbon, wrote in an email that in the short term, the facility has reduced its process rate, which has reduced emissions.

In addition, the facility is building a new, taller waste heat boiler stack, raising it from 120 feet to 190 feet to help with dispersion of the material.

The results, so far, have been good.

The agreement was signed June 20, and the last time the monitor near the plant registered a violation of the federal standard was June 8, Phillips said.

That monitor had been seeing 30 to 40 violations a year for at least the past several years.

Rain CII processes a oil refining byproduct called green petroleum coke into a calcined coke that is used in the manufacture of aluminum.

The facility employs 25 people, Minton wrote.

Patrick Trahan, spokesman for Chalmette Refinery, said that before the new standards were in place, the refinery and DEQ entered into a consent decree agreement that resulted in reductions in sulfur dioxide releases.

"We have reduced our SO2 emissions by 85 percent over the last five years,"
Trahan said.

Information from EPA shows that the Rain CII plant released 4,284 tons of the total parish emissions of 5,753 tons in 2008. Chalmette Refining released 250 tons.

"We do see industry in St. Bernard Parish working very hard to close that gap," Trahan said.

Notice of the EPA decision will be printed in the federal registry in the next week or two, making the decision official.

The next step will be for the state to develop a "State Implementation Plan," which will outline specific steps to be taken to bring the readings at the monitor in Chalmette into compliance with federal regulations.

Computer modeling on which industries contribute to the problem, and by how much, will help officials decide what reductions will need to be made and where, Philips said.

The parish will have five years to come into compliance with the new federal standard, which Phillips said is absolutely doable.

"The good news for us is we've been working on that for some time," he said.

Since 2007, the one-hour trend at the Chalmette Vista air monitor has seen the levels of sulfur dioxide go from 240 parts per billion to 217 parts per billion, according to information from DEQ.