Refinery Leaks Spew Pollutants, Study Says

Oil refineries spew an estimated 80 million pounds of previously undetected air pollutants into the nation’s skies yearly--much of it in California--from leaking valves that often can be fixed with a simple wrench, according to a congressional report released Wednesday.

The report by the House Government Reform Committee’s Democratic staff accuses the oil industry of greatly underreporting leaks at refineries that release into the air the equivalent of pollutants from 5 million cars.

“The bad news is the Clean Air Act is being violated and Americans are being exposed to tremendous amounts of harmful air pollution,” said Rep. Henry A. Waxman (D-Los Angeles), the panel’s top Democrat and an author of the 1990 air quality law. “The good news is the problem can be solved. All that’s needed is a good wrench.”

An investigation is underway at the federal Environmental Protection Agency into the refinery industry’s “widespread noncompliance” with federal rules requiring it to report and fix leaking valves, according to a high-ranking EPA official who requested anonymity.

“We think they’ve cut corners on monitoring for the leaks,” the official said. “We’ll be taking enforcement actions over the next six months to address those problems.”

The official agreed with the assessment that much of the problem could be solved by simply tightening the valves.

Representatives of several oil companies, including Exxon, BP Amoco and Mobil, declined immediate comment.

Paul Langland, a spokesman for Arco in Los Angeles, said the company is part of a strongly regulated industry and takes the issue of pollution “very seriously.”

Langland said Arco’s Carson refinery participates in a strict leak detection program monitored by the South Coast Air Quality Management District. Nearly all of the refinery’s valves are checked on a monthly or quarterly schedule, he said, and leaks above an acceptable threshold are fixed within one day.

“We feel that because of this program our leaks have decreased dramatically over the last five years,” Langland said.

In Southern California, officials at the South Coast Air Quality Management District said they have moved aggressively to attack so-called fugitive emissions, including issuing a notice of violation on the spot whenever they find a major leaky valve. “Because of the level that we have on field enforcement, we would not be surprised that our leak rates might be lower than you would see in other areas of the country,” said Barry Wallerstein, the agency’s executive officer.

Industry groups strongly contested the report’s implication that lax maintenance at refineries is responsible for high amounts of pollution.

Jeff Wilson, a spokesman for the Glendale-based Western States Petroleum Assn., said Waxman’s claim that most such pollution problems could be fixed with a wrench is “grossly overstated.”

“We are employing some of the newest, most effective clean technologies in the world here in California,” Wilson said.

The American Petroleum Institute disputed the suggestion that the industry is significantly breaching the Clean Air Act.

In a statement, the trade group said: “A large refinery spends well in excess of a million dollars per year complying with the many regulations governing fugitive emissions. For many years the industry has been working proactively, often in conjunction with the EPA, to improve equipment and methods for the detection and control of fugitive emissions.”

The congressional report was based on inspections at 17 refineries nationwide by the EPA that found leaks in 2,373 valves--5% of the total surveyed. That was “nearly four times higher than the average reported” by the refineries, the report said.

The highest rate--leaks in 10.5% of the valves--was detected at the Chevron refinery in Richmond in Northern California, the report said.

Chevron representatives questioned the report’s findings. Marielle Boortz, spokeswoman for Chevron’s Richmond refinery, said that 6,000 valves at the installation have been audited this year by local air quality authorities and that the leak rate was 0.8%.

Underreporting of leaks also was found at Arco’s Carson refinery, Exxon’s refinery in Benicia, Calif., and about a dozen refineries in other states inspected in fiscal 1998.

Based on that sampling, the report estimated that the nation’s 164 petroleum refineries annually release an unreported 80 million pounds of volatile organic compounds--a precursor to smog.

California was among the top states--after Texas and Louisiana--with the most unreported emissions--about 9 million pounds of volatile organic compounds, according to the report’s estimate.