LOUISIANA
Federal and state environmental agencies announced a settlement Monday with Shell Chemical LP that will eliminate more than 150 tons of excess emissions of harmful air pollutants from the plant in Norco in St. Charles Parish, according to officials.
Shell will pay $10 million in pollution monitoring and control equipment.
“We are proud to partner with the State of Louisiana on this important Clean Air Act settlement, which will benefit the citizens of Louisiana,” said Acting Assistant Attorney General Jeffrey H. Wood of the Justice Department’s Environment and Natural Resources Division. “This agreement is the latest in EPA’s and the Justice Department’s continuing efforts to work with our state partners to protect the American public from harmful air pollution.”
In addition, by installing and maintaining state-of-the-art monitoring and control technology at its flares, Shell will ensure that the plant flares are operated at a high combustion efficiency.
Shell will also install and maintain monitoring equipment to detect air pollution along the facility fence line and publish the monitoring results on a public website.
Shell will also pay civil penalties totaling $350,000, including $87,500 for the Louisiana Department of Environmental Quality, according to officials.
The settlement resolves allegations that Shell violated the Clean Air Act and State law by failing to properly operate industrial flares at the facility, officials said.
The settlement, in the form of a Consent Decree, will require Shell to spend approximately $10 million to install and operate air pollution control and monitoring technology to reduce harmful air pollution from four industrial flares at the Norco plant.
Once fully implemented, the pollution controls required by the settlement are estimated to reduce air emissions of volatile organic compounds or VOCs by approximately 159 tons per year, and reduce other harmful air pollutants, including benzene, by approximately 18 tons per year.
“We are proud to partner with the State of Louisiana on this important Clean Air Act settlement, which will benefit the citizens of Louisiana,” said Acting Assistant Attorney General Jeffrey H. Wood of the Justice Department’s Environment and Natural Resources Division. “This agreement is the latest in EPA’s and the Justice Department’s continuing efforts to work with our state partners to protect the American public from harmful air pollution.”
VOCs and benzene can seriously harm public health.
VOCs are a key component in the formation of smog or ground-level ozone, a pollutant that irritates the lungs, exacerbates diseases such as asthma, and can increase susceptibility to respiratory illnesses, such as pneumonia and bronchitis. Chronic exposure to benzene, which EPA classifies as a carcinogen, can cause numerous health impacts, including leukemia and adverse reproductive effects in women.
The settlement agreement will reduce flaring and improve Shell’s flaring practices, reducing emissions at the facility. Industrial flares burn waste gases that otherwise would be released into the atmosphere.
Well-operated flares have high “combustion efficiency,” meaning they burn nearly all the harmful components in the waste gas, including VOCs and hazardous air pollutants, turning them into water and carbon dioxide.
Under the consent decree, Shell will take steps to minimize the amount of waste gas sent to the flares.
Shell will also operate a flare gas recovery system at the facility, which will save the company money by allowing it to use waste gas as fuel; this waste gas would otherwise be sent to the facility’s flares.