[StBernard] St. Bernard plant's sulfur dioxide emissions have exceeded limits once in past three months, DEQ said

[Westley Annis]

St. Bernard plant's sulfur dioxide emissions have exceeded limits once in
past three months, DEQ said
Print Benjamin Alexander-Bloch, NOLA.com | The Times-Picayune By Benjamin
Alexander-Bloch, NOLA.com | The Times-Picayune 
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on September 11, 2013 at 6:30 PM, updated September 12, 2013 at 4:11 AM

Sulfur dioxide emissions in St. Bernard Parish have only exceeded the hourly
federal health standard once in the past three months, the Louisiana
Department of Environmental Quality said in a recent letter sent to reassure
parish officials. 

The letter to the parish's Housing Redevelopment and Quality of Life
Commission indicated DEQ is doing what it can, working with Rain CII
Carbon's Chalmette petroleum coke processing plant to curb its emissions. 

Rain CII officials have admitted that the Chalmette plant was responsible
for "the lion's share" of the sulfur dioxide emissions in the parish over
the past several years.

St. Bernard's Chief Administrative Officer Jerry Graves said that he sees
the lowered emissions "as due to the higher amount of public scrutiny and
awareness about the S02 releases."

Commissioner Polly Campbell on Wednesday praised Rain CII for partnering
with the parish and "making significant progress" towards lowering
emissions.

In July, the head of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency informed Gov.
Bobby Jindal that St. Bernard officially had been found in violation of
hourly sulfur dioxide emission standards adopted in 2010.

St. Bernard is one of only three whole counties in the United States - and
the only parish in Louisiana - that will receive such a "nonattainment"
designation, meaning it does not meet the sulfur dioxide standard.

The designation will become official on Oct. 4 -- 60 days after the rule was
published in Federal Register on Aug. 5.

The Clean Air Act directs Louisiana to develop a plan within 18 months of
that Oct. 4 designation to show how the area will meet the sulfur dioxide
health standard and get into compliance no later than 5 years from the
designation. The EPA must sign off on the state's plan.

This year, air quality in St. Bernard has exceeded the federal one-hour
sulfur dioxide health standard 34 times, according to the readings at the
DEQ's ambient air monitor in the Chalmette Vista neighborhood.

The last overage was on Aug. 9, when the monitor recorded a reading just
slightly over the 75 parts per billion sulfur dioxide standard. The previous
overage had been monitored on June 8.

Studies have shown a connection between short-term exposure to sulfur
dioxide and respiratory illnesses, particularly in at-risk populations
including children, the elderly and people suffering from asthma, according
to the EPA. In January, a New Orleans-based environmental group, the
Louisiana Bucket Brigade, released a nonscientific survey showing 70 people
in the Chalmette area had reported respiratory problems, headaches or eye
irritation because of the heightened sulphur dioxide levels.

The DEQ letter to the parish commissioners also stated that Rain CII has
begun constructing a new 199-foot tall waste heat boiler stack. DEQ and Rain
CII entered into a consent agreement in June that states Rain CII will
replace its current stack - which is 120 feet high - with the new, higher
one. That new stack must be operational no later than Dec. 31, but the
recent DEQ letter said the new stack is "expected to be completed sooner"
than the deadline.

Raising the stack at the plant will not reduce the amount of pollution
released, it simply will change the dispersion of the SO2. In other words,
the Chalmette Vista monitoring station isn't expected to pick up as much of
the S02 simply because the pollution is expected to spread out more.

But Rain CII also has agreed to cut its permitted S02 levels in half, from
2,500 pounds of S02 an hour to 1,200 an hour as part of the agreement.