The US Department of Justice, the US Environmental Protection Agency, and the US Attorney in San Francisco reported last month a clean air settlement with ChevronTexaco Corp.'s refining unit Chevron USA Inc.
ChevronTexaco agreed to pay a $3.5 million civil penalty and spend more than $4 million on further emissions controls and other environmental projects in communities around the company's refineries.
Part of the penalty is to resolve specific claims for hazardous substance release reporting violations at its El Segundo, Calif., refinery. The states of Hawaii, Mississippi, Utah, and California local regulator Bay Area Air Quality Management District will share in the cash penalties.
A consent decree filed in US District Court in San Francisco will require ChevronTexaco to spend an estimated $275 million to install and implement innovative control technologies to reduce emissions at its refineries.
"The emissions reductions required by this settlement will lead to cleaner air and significant environmental and public health benefits," said Asst. Atty. Gen. Thomas L. Sansonetti. "We expect to continue our strong enforcement efforts and see to it that other refiners will follow suit by improving environmental controls to reduce harmful emissions."
To meet obligations under EPA's New Source Review program, EPA said ChevronTexaco will cut emissions significantly from its largest emitting units through the use of "innovative technologies."
And under the negotiated settlement, ChevronTexaco will upgrade its leak detection and repair practices, implement programs to minimize flaring of hazardous gases, reduce emissions from its sulfur recovery plants, and adopt strategies to ensure the proper handling of hazardous benzene wastes at each refinery.
Environmentalists, however, argue that the fines are not high enough to discourage further clean air violations.
They and some state air quality regulators also maintain that EPA efforts to update and streamline NSR rules will damage instead of improve air quality.
The affected ChevronTexaco refineries are located in Richmond and El Segundo, Calif.; Pascagoula, Miss.; Salt Lake City; and Kapolei, Hawaii.
This agreement is the latest in a series of multi-issue, multifacility settlements reached by EPA under its Petroleum Refinery Initiative.
EPA and the DOJ recently announced Clean Air Act settlements with several small refiners (see related story, p. 30).
In the past 3 years, several major refiners have entered into settlements.
To date, settlements under this initiative are reducing pollution at 42 US refineries that account for about 40% of domestic refining capacity.