BP's Texas City Refinery Fined Again

WASHINGTON, DC, March 9, 2009 (ENS) - BP Products North America Inc. has agreed to pay the U.S. government more than three-quarters of a million dollars to resolve Emergency Planning and Community Right-to-Know Act, EPCRA, violations at its Texas City, Texas, refinery.

The company will pay a $420,662 civil penalty and spend $365,000 on supplemental environmental projects in Texas City, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency said today.

The law requires that certain facilities that manufacture, process or use certain toxic chemicals report releases annually by July 1, for the preceding calendar year.

This settlement addresses the company's noncompliance with EPCRA reporting requirements by failing to complete and submit toxic chemical release inventory information to the EPA and the state of Texas for the period 2002-2005, and failure to maintain reporting records for calendar year 2004.

View of the ultracracker unit at BP's Texas City refinery. (Photo courtesy U.S. Chemical Safety and Hazard Investigation Board)

The toxic chemicals subject to reporting requirements included anthracene, cobalt compounds, dioxin and dioxin-like compounds, formaldehyde, lead compounds, methanol, nickel compounds, phenanthrene, and vanadium.

The $365,000 in supplemental environmental projects are intended to improve Texas City's ability to respond to emergency releases that threaten human health or the environment.

They include an ambulance, upgrade of the city's computer system, communications equipment and an Optigon system to assist with traffic control during emergencies.

Also included in the projects are funds to improve the city's Emergency Operations Center and upgrade the city's mobile command post.

Third largest in the nation, the Texas City refinery is BP's largest and most complex refinery with a rated capacity of 460,000 barrels per day and an ability to produce 11 million gallons of gasoline a day.

Located just south of Houston, the plant includes 29 oil refining units and four chemical units spread over a 1,200 acre site. The Texas City refinery makes about 2.5 percent of all the gasoline sold in the United States.

Violations at the Texas City refinery have been very costly for the company this year.

On February 19, the federal government announced a settlement with BP Products North America Inc. under which the company must spend more than $161 million on pollution controls, better maintenance and monitoring, and improved internal management practices to resolve Clean Air Act violations at the refinery.

The company will also pay a $12 million civil penalty and spend $6 million on a supplemental project to reduce air pollution in Texas City.

That settlement addresses the company's noncompliance with a 2001 consent decree and Clean Air Act regulations requiring strict controls on benzene and benzene-containing wastes generated during petroleum refining operations.

A major explosion occurred in an isomerization unit at the site on March 23, 2005, killing 15 workers and injuring more than 170 others. The company says that following the tragedy it "put the Texas City site on a sustainable course to deliver safe, consistent and dependable results."

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