The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the Department of Justice announced a settlement of a $3.4 million civil penalty with Equistar Chemicals; LyondellBasell Acetyls; and Lyondell Chemical Company, that will eliminate thousands of tons of air pollution from six of Lyondell’s petrochemical manufacturing facilities in Texas and Iowa, the EPA said in a statement.
The three defendants in this matter are subsidiaries of LyondellBasell Industries N.V., a Dutch-domiciled multinational chemical company with American and British roots, incorporated in the Netherlands, with U.S. operations headquarters in Houston, and offices in London, UK. Worldwide, the company is the largest licensor of polyethylene and polypropylene technologies and the third largest independent chemical manufacturer. It also produces ethylene, propylene, polyolefins, and oxyfuels.
The settlement involves the reduction of air pollution from petrochemical and chemical flares. A flare is a mechanical device, ordinarily elevated high off the ground, used to combust waste gases.
Six facilities located in Channelview, Corpus Christi, and La Porte, Texas, as well as in Clinton, Iowa are covered in this settlement. The facilities subject to the settlement include two principal types of chemical plants:
- Olefins Plants. The primary products of these plants are ethylene and propylene, both of which are olefins. Ethylene is a feedstock for the production of consumer plastic products such as garbage bags, bread wrappers, packaging, and wire insulation. Propylene is also a feedstock used to produce products such as carpet, upholstery, boats, and car parts.
- Polymer Plants. The primary products of these plants are different grades of polyethylene, a polymer. Polyethylene is the feedstock for the production of consumer products such as food containers/packaging, carpet backing, diapers, pipe, truck bed liners, and shipping crates. Polyethylene is the most common plastic in the world.
The complaint alleges violations of Clean Air Act (CAA) requirements at Lyondell’s flares that resulted in excess emissions of pollutants, including volatile organic compounds (VOCs), various hazardous air pollutants (HAPs) including benzene, and climate-change-causing greenhouse gases. The allegations include violations of:
- New Source Review/Prevention of Significant Deterioration (NSR/PSD) and Minor New Source Review, 40 C.F.R. Parts 51 and 52
- New Source Performance Standards (NSPS), 40 C.F.R. Part 60, Subparts A and DDD.
- National Emission Standards for Hazardous Air Pollutants (NESHAP), 40 C.F.R. Part 61, Subparts A and FF.
- NESHAP, 40 C.F.R. Part 63, Subparts A, F, G, H, Y, SS, YY, and FFFF.
- Title V and the Title V permits at Lyondell’s facilities.
- Texas and Iowa State Implementation Plan (SIP) requirements.
The consent decree requires the following actions to resolve the CAA claims:
- Submit and implement waste gas minimization plans which are detailed plans for reducing waste gas to flares.
- Undertake a root cause analysis and implement corrective action for “reportable flaring incidents” (i.e., greater than 500,000 standard cubic feet per day waste gas flow above baseload flows).
- Install a new flare gas recovery system at the LaPorte facility and continue to operate an existing flare gas recovery system at the Channelview facility. These systems will recover and “recycle” the gases instead of sending them to be combusted in a flare and will allow Lyondell to reuse these gases as a fuel at its facilities or a product for sale. Each system will have a minimum capacity of 1.44 million standard cubic feet per day.
- Install and operate flare monitoring and control equipment to assure high combustion efficiency at all flares subject to the settlement.
- Operate fenceline monitoring stations to detect the presence of benzene from the covered plants. Monitoring data will be made publicly available on the internet.
The proposed settlement, lodged in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Texas, is subject to a 30-day public comment period and final court approval. Information on submitting comment is available at the Department of Justice.
