Environmental regulators are ignoring their duty to amend old rules
that curb air pollution emitted by petroleum refineries, nonprofits say
in federal court.
Click here to read Courthouse News' Environmental Law Review. The Clean Air Act requires the Environmental Protection Agency to address current pollution problems with new standards within eight years of promulgating regulations, according to the complaint.
Eight groups say the time has come for the EPA to revisit regulations on petroleum refineries, including their catalytic cracking units, catalytic reforming units and sulfur recovery units.
"Emission factors for petroleum refineries are inaccurate and emission reporting, such as to the National Emissions Inventory, based on such factors has long underestimated air emissions from petroleum refineries," the complaint states.
The groups say that the EPA recently collected emission data from refineries that showed "approximately 150 existing refineries in 32 states emit a total of over 20,000 tons per year of hazardous air pollutants, including 1,346 tons of benzene, 4,079 tons of hydrogen cyanide, 443 tons of formaldehyde, 282 tons of naphthalene, and 218 tons of hydrogen fluoride."
An old EPA final rule on refinery emissions connected such toxic emissions with cancer and a number of other chronic health disorders, according to the complaint.
"In recent years, the National Academy of Sciences and other scientific experts have released significant amounts of new information on the ways in which toxic chemicals emitted by petroleum refineries affect exposed people, particularly children, and on ways government agencies such as EPA can account for the real-world risk faced by communities exposed to toxic air pollution," the complaint states.
Read more: http://www.courthousenews.com/2012/10/03/50898.htm
Click here to read Courthouse News' Environmental Law Review. The Clean Air Act requires the Environmental Protection Agency to address current pollution problems with new standards within eight years of promulgating regulations, according to the complaint.
Eight groups say the time has come for the EPA to revisit regulations on petroleum refineries, including their catalytic cracking units, catalytic reforming units and sulfur recovery units.
"Emission factors for petroleum refineries are inaccurate and emission reporting, such as to the National Emissions Inventory, based on such factors has long underestimated air emissions from petroleum refineries," the complaint states.
The groups say that the EPA recently collected emission data from refineries that showed "approximately 150 existing refineries in 32 states emit a total of over 20,000 tons per year of hazardous air pollutants, including 1,346 tons of benzene, 4,079 tons of hydrogen cyanide, 443 tons of formaldehyde, 282 tons of naphthalene, and 218 tons of hydrogen fluoride."
An old EPA final rule on refinery emissions connected such toxic emissions with cancer and a number of other chronic health disorders, according to the complaint.
"In recent years, the National Academy of Sciences and other scientific experts have released significant amounts of new information on the ways in which toxic chemicals emitted by petroleum refineries affect exposed people, particularly children, and on ways government agencies such as EPA can account for the real-world risk faced by communities exposed to toxic air pollution," the complaint states.
Read more: http://www.courthousenews.com/2012/10/03/50898.htm
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