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Sunday, June 01, 2008
Environment - "Flares at heart of BP air permit appeal"
Gitte Laasby of the Gary Post-Tribune has another story today on the BP air permit controversy. Her report begins:
WHITING -- Flares stand at the heart of the appeal of BP's air permit.You can't miss them. They're those tall Roman-candle like structures that dot refineries and other industrial complexes. But the purpose of flares is the opposite of fireworks. They exist to relieve pressure and gases from start-ups, shut-downs and any other blip in the refining system.
A pilot light on the flare burns off any chemicals dangerous to humans. But the process also creates CO2 and other pollutants and emissions that environmental groups say BP and the Indiana Department of Environmental Management have not properly accounted for.
BP insists it's accounted for what it can account for.
And the whole process of building the largest capital improvement project in the history of Indiana rests on the disagreement over these flares.
Environmentalists say BP and IDEM left out emissions from existing flares and only counted emissions from purge gases and pilot lights, where a small amount of gas is continuously burned to keep the flare system functional. The no-flaring assumption seems to fly in the face of data showing that flares are a large source of oil refinery emissions, environmentalists said.
At refineries in California, emissions of sulfur oxides during startups, shutdowns or emergencies were as high as 70,000 pounds in a day and 3,000 tons in a year, according to a coalition of environmentalists. BP estimated flare emissions would be 0.4 tons per year -- one hundredth of what's allowed without installing best-available pollution control equipment or offsetting emissions.
"I flatly refuse to believe they're building these three new flares with the intention of never using them," said Ann Alexander, senior attorney with the Natural Resources Defense Council, which has taken the lead in the appeal on behalf of environmental groups.
"What we want the Office of Environmental Adjudication to do is tell IDEM you need to include all these emissions in your calculations. We think once you do that, they'd conclude this is a major source, not a minor source permit. It would require the facility to install best-available control technology or achieve lowest achievable emission rates, which would require new permit terms."
Posted by Marcia Oddi on June 1, 2008 08:55 AM
Posted to Environment