Refineries OK Deal With EPA to Curb Emissions

Two of the nation’s largest oil refiners--BP Amoco and the Koch Petroleum Group--have agreed to spend nearly $600 million to reduce air pollutants at their refineries under terms of a deal with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.

EPA officials say that it is the single largest Clean Air Act agreement with the oil industry.

The two companies will install state-of-the-art technologies to control hydrocarbons, nitrogen oxides and sulfur emissions at 12 refineries. Included is a BP Amoco refinery in Carson, formerly owned by Arco.

Hydrocarbons and nitrogen oxides form urban smog and the sulfur fumes contain particles linked to respiratory disease.

EPA Administrator Carol Browner on Tuesday commended Koch Petroleum and BP Amoco for coming forward voluntarily last spring to negotiate the deal after the EPA began investigating oil refineries across the nation for possible violations. In return, the EPA will not pursue potential legal actions against several of the refineries in the Midwest and will allow flexible deadlines for compliance.

Koch executives said their refineries will be equipped with pollution controls that will “set the pace for U.S. refineries.”

Koch’s executive vice president, Jim Mahoney, said Tuesday that the agreement “lays out an efficient, flexible path forward” to reducing emissions at its three refineries in Minnesota and Texas. The agreement, he said, is “proof positive” that complying with complex and evolving environmental regulations “need not result in drawn-out, expensive litigation.”

Representatives of BP Amoco in Washington were unavailable for comment Tuesday.

Browner warned that other large companies will be targeted for legal action if they do not make similar agreements to upgrade pollution controls. In addition to oil refineries, the EPA is investigating paper mills and coal-powered power plants.

BP Amoco, the second-largest refiner in the United States, will pay a $10-million fine and spend about $500 million upgrading pollution controls at nine refineries in Washington state, North Dakota, Utah, Ohio, Texas, Indiana and Virginia, as well as the Carson refinery and one in Louisiana recently purchased by Tosco. Koch will pay a $4.5-million fine and spend up to $80 million.

The two companies account for 15% of the nation’s oil refining capacity.

Three of the 12 refineries are in Texas, where Gov. George W. Bush has been criticized during his presidential campaign for failing to require major industrial plants to clean up emissions.

The requirements include valve leak repairs, scrubbers and other equipment on boilers to reduce nitrogen oxides and a reduction in use of flaring, which allows sulfur to vent into the air.

Much of the EPA’s agreement is based on equipment that is already in use at Los Angeles-area refineries to comply with local smog control rules. EPA officials say that BP Amoco’s Carson plant already complies in many areas but that some new controls are likely to be needed. Details of the requirements at each refinery will be outlined in a final consent decree.

When fully implemented in 2008, the agreement is supposed to eliminate 60,000 annual tons of the three pollutants.