By Tim McLaughlin
(Reuters) – A Valero refinery outside of New Orleans recently produced lung-damaging soot at rates that exceeded federal limits while outpacing other major U.S. refineries, according to disclosures by state and federal environmental regulators.
Soot, or small and fine particle pollution, has an outsized effect on poor and minority communities living near industrial sites, causing thousands of premature deaths each year from lung and heart damage, according to the EPA. In June, the EPA said it was reviewing whether to impose stricter limits on soot pollution.
The rate of pollution observed at Valero Energy’s St. Charles refinery in Norco, Louisiana, based on EPA standards, is the highest among the 50 largest U.S. refineries, according to the Reuters examination of stack test results.
It is rare for a U.S. refinery to push up against or exceed the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency limit on soot, which is among the most harmful pollutants, according to a Reuters examination of tests results since 2017.
Soot from St. Charles, which can process up to 215,000 barrels of crude oil every day, exceeded the federal limit during August pollution tests, sometimes by as much as 10% to 20%. Soot at that refinery has escalated since 2017, according to results from stack tests, used to measure fine particle pollution. Valero did not return messages seeking comment.
Currently, plants are required to restrict soot emissions to 1 pound or less for every 1,000 pounds of coke burned in a refinery’s catalytic cracking units.
Refiners with high rates are tested for soot emissions as often as twice a year. The August tests at St. Charles showed emissions peaked at 1.2 pounds per 1,000 pounds of coke burned. The average pollution rate under three test conditions, each using different liquid-to-gas ratios in the refinery’s pollution scrubber, was slightly above the EPA limit at 1.02 to 1.04 pounds.
The tests were conducted by an engineering firm Valero hired to demonstrate its regulatory compliance. The results were filed with The Louisiana Department of Environmental Quality (LDEQ) in October and have not previously been reported.
The EPA and the LDEQ declined to comment for this story.
Particulate matter is among the most harmful pollutants. Made up of particles 50 times smaller than a grain of sand, it can bond with other toxins, infiltrate the bloodstream, and damage the heart, lungs and nervous system.
A refinery’s catalytic cracker converts crude oil into lighter products such as gasoline. That unit typically accounts for the largest amount of small particle pollution at a refinery.
On a volume basis, Valero St. Charles’ peak was 69 pounds per hour, or an equivalent of 302 tons per year, during the August pollution test. With a few exceptions, even larger refineries than St. Charles produce lower rates and volumes of soot pollution, according to test results reviewed by Reuters.
The refinery’s small particle pollution rate has escalated far above the level recorded during a 2017 stack test, said Wilma Subra, a Louisiana-based scientist who formerly served on the EPA’s National Environmental Justice Advisory Council. The highest average rate in 2021 at St. Charles was 46% higher than the highest average rate in 2017, stack test results show.
“There are low-income African-American community members living on the fence line of the Valero Norco Refinery and are being negatively impacted by the cumulative impacts of emissions being released by the Valero refinery,” Subra said. Regulators should require the refinery to cut those emissions to “improve the quality of life for the fence-line community members.”
(Reporting By Tim McLaughlin in Boston; Editing by Andrea Ricci)
