|
A landmark air permit settlement announced Sept. 11 between ConocoPhillips’ Wood River Refinery and environmental groups means the $4 billion coker and refinery expansion project is back on track.
ConocoPhillips spokesman Bill Graham says the company is still looking at completing construction by the end of 2010. The settlement and new air permit took effect immediately.
“We’re pleased that the [Illinois EPA air quality] permit is now final, but we’re disappointed that the permitting process, particularly for a project of this magnitude, took 27 months,” said Graham.
In June, the US EPA sided with environmentalists and rejected an air permit granted by the IEPA on the grounds that the pollution control requirements in the permit were insufficient. Specifically, the legal challenge from the American Bottom Conservancy, represented by the Natural Resources Defense Council - and Sierra Club, represented by Environmental Integrity Project - argued that harmful air pollution from the refinery’s flares was not being sufficiently controlled.
Ann Alexander, senior attorney for the NRDC, calls ConocoPhillips’ settlement precedent-setting.
“Overall, the settlement - in many ways - reflects the power of the [US EPA] Environmental Appeals Board decision,” Alexander said. “The power of that decision has lead to a unique settlement that goes above and beyond the substance of the decision itself.”
In last month’s settlement, ConocoPhillips agrees to address additional pollutants that Alexander says are coming out in much higher volumes than the carbon monoxide emissions from the two new flares that are part of the expansion project. Although carbon monoxide flare emission control was the technical issue in play, Alexander says the refinery has now, in the settlement, agreed to also put in controls for emissions of sulfur dioxide and several other pollutants as well. She added, “The settlement is built around requirements pulled directly from California pollution control regulations that we believe are the appropriate standard here under federal law.”
Not only does ConocoPhillips have provisions addressing the two new flares, Alexander says, but across the board the company has agreed to put in flare minimization plans to minimize emissions at all of its Wood River Refinery flares. “And above and beyond that, ConocoPhillips is taking some really crucial steps that will help us better understand refinery emissions overall for future purposes,” she said.
Refineries are technically complicated, according to Alexander, in terms of their infrastructure and all the processes which feed into each other. “There are a lot of fugitive emissions,” she added, referring to pollutants that escape unintentionally such as from storage tanks or through faulty valve connections. “Through this settlement, ConocoPhillips has agreed to new monitoring technology that has not been extensively used in a refinery context.”
Alexander says the settlement agreement requires that ConocoPhillips monitor emissions from a tank farm and another source at the refinery using the new state-of-the-art technique for the remote sensing of atmospheric gases. The refiner has also agreed to conduct an inventory of its carbon dioxide emissions and commit to a reduction. “They made a commitment to reduce CO2 emissions by at least 6 percent, and that doesn’t include CO2 emissions from their new flares, which will be additionally reduced when those flares are better controlled,” she said.
Although Graham did not elaborate on the company’s thinking in opting for a settlement rather than resubmitting a revised IEPA air permit to the feds, Alexander said ConocoPhillips clearly felt it was in their best interests to come to a timely resolution.
“The bottom line is that without a settlement, ConocoPhillips would have had no guarantee that the IEPA would do the right thing,” she said. “The settlement involved ConocoPhillips handing IEPA a number of provisions that they wanted included.”
According to the settlement document, the company’s investment in flare emissions monitoring equipment will not exceed $350,000.
In addition to its commitment to reduce and monitor emissions, ConocoPhillips committed via the settlement to pay $3.4 million towards a number of “green” initiatives, including school energy efficiency programs and an ongoing “Cool Cities” initiative to aid cities that are trying to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions.
“We hope that other refineries will follow ConocoPhillips’ lead,” said Alexander. “Big Oil needs to shell out some of its record profits to pay the environmental cost of its operations, rather than forcing people nearby to pay that cost in the form of harm to their health from air pollution.”
The IEPA did not choose to comment on the settlement.
|
