HOUSTON -- The largest oil refinery in the United States
released more than 8 million pounds of illegal pollution in the
past five years, violating the federal Clean Air Act thousands of
times, according to a lawsuit filed Tuesday by environmental groups
in Texas.
The lawsuit against ExxonMobil is the latest by Sierra Club and
Environment Texas as part of their campaign to rein in what they
call "illegal emissions" by dozens of refineries and chemical
plants that operate in the Texas Gulf Coast. In recent months, the
groups have reached multimillion-dollar, out-of-court settlements
with Shell and Chevron Phillips after filing similar suits.
ExxonMobil denied the allegations and said it would fight the
lawsuit. In the past five years, the Exxon refinery in Baytown has
produced annual emissions that are 40 percent lower than the limits
set by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, spokesman Kevin
Allexon said in a statement. Since 2003, Exxon has invested nearly
$1.3 billion in the Baytown facility to improve environmental
performance, he added.
"ExxonMobil works hard to operate within regulatory standards
while continuing to make significant improvements in its
environmental performance through emissions controls, technology
enhancements and process changes," Allexon said. "We are proud of
our investment in -- and improvement of -- environmental performance
at the Baytown complex."
Texas has more oil refineries, chemical plants and coal-fired
power plants that any other state and is the nation's leader in
greenhouse gases. The state produces more than 20 percent of the
nation's oil and one-third of the country's gas is refined along
the Texas Gulf Coast.
The Associated Press reported in July that the environmental
groups had issued ExxonMobil with a required 60-day notice on their
intent to sue.
The federal lawsuit filed in Houston accuses Exxon of violating
emission limits on sulfur dioxide, a component of acid rain;
hydrogen sulfide, a toxic, flammable gas characterized by a rotten
egg smell; such cancer-causing agents as benzene and butadiene;
carbon monoxide; and the smog-causing agent nitrogen oxide.
It says the "emissions events" are usually caused by equipment
breakdowns and malfunctions. For example, in October, there were
two such events in the same day, according to the lawsuit. The
first occurred at 6:10 a.m. when a broken hose caused more than
15,000 pounds of toxic and cancer-causing chemical fumes to be
released into the air in just 30 minutes. Later in the afternoon,
an underground pipe began leaking, releasing more than 80 pounds of
cancer-causing benzene before it was shutdown 28 hours later.
"Air quality in Harris County and especially along the Houston
Ship Channel continues to be among the worst in the nation,"
Sierra Club chemist Neil Carman said. "Whether you're talking
about high levels of ozone that make it difficult to breathe or
about toxic and carcinogenic chemicals, industrial facilities like
Exxon's Baytown plant are major contributors to the problem."
The legal maneuvers are part of the broader accusations by the
environmental groups and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
that state regulators are not properly monitoring and enforcing
federal emissions standards.
State regulators say their rules decrease pollution, but are not
so stringent that it becomes too expensive to operate in the state.
