toxins

May 25, 2023

Shell hit with $10 mln penalty over air pollution

By Dana Drugmand

Pennsylvania state regulators have ordered a Shell subsidiary to pay nearly $10 million to resolve multiple air permit violations committed by the company’s new petrochemical facility located about 30 miles northwest of Pittsburgh.

The move comes amidst mounting frustration and outrage from area residents and environmental organizations over the plant’s release of hazardous chemicals and foul odors and disruptive flaring – a process designed to burn up invisible harmful hydrocarbons produced through plant operations – in recent months.

Shell’s 386-acre facility, located on the banks of the Ohio River in Beaver County, Pennsylvania near the town of Monaca, is the largest plastics production plant in the Northeast and Shell’s largest petrochemical facility outside of the Gulf Coast. The plant uses a process called “cracking” to convert the natural gas liquid ethane into the petrochemical ethylene, a building block for fossil fuel-derived plastic production.

Since Shell announced the startup of operations in November, the $6 billion plastics production facility has racked up 11 notices of violation – all pertaining to air quality – from the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection (DEP), including four last week alone.

On Wednesday the state announced a consent order and agreement with Shell Chemicals Appalachia, the subsidiary operating the plant. Under the arrangement, the company has formally acknowledged its violations of the state’s Air Pollution Control Act and agreed to pay $4.9 million as a civil penalty plus another $5 million for projects to “benefit community environment and health.” Shell also agreed to make equipment repairs and take “all reasonable and feasible measures” to mitigate excess emissions, along with paying monthly civil penalties for future exceedance of emissions limits for the rest of 2023.

May 11, 2023

After repeated air pollution violations, Shell plastics plant hit with federal lawsuit

By Dana Drugmand

A unit of the British multinational Shell plc is repeatedly violating state and federal air pollution rules and harming the health of area residents, according to a lawsuit filed Thursday in federal court by an environmental group after a series of air permit violations at the company’s new plastics production plant in Pennsylvania.

The lawsuit, filed in the US District Court for the Western District of Pennsylvania by the Clean Air Council against Shell Chemical Appalachia, seeks monetary penalties and demands an end to the plant’s release of illegally high levels of pollutants that include nitrogen oxides (NOx) and volatile organic compounds (VOCs).

Breathing VOCs can cause difficulty breathing and nausea and damage the central nervous system and other organs, according to the American Lung Association. Some can cause cancer.

“Illegal air emissions, smoking flares, and malfunctions at the Plant have resulted in excess emissions of VOCs, NOx, particulate matter (“PM”), benzene, and other harmful pollution,” the complaint states.

Shell did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The filing comes six months after Shell announced the start of operations at the plant in November and one month after a malfunction at the facility’s waste water treatment system caused a chemical leak that released a foul odor and sent cancer-causing benzene and other toxins over the fence-line and into the surrounding community.

Residents reported experiencing headaches, nausea, irritated throats and watery eyes during the April 11 chemical leak incident. Shell’s passive air monitors recorded benzene levels of up to 110 micrograms per cubic meter that week, far exceeding the 29 micrograms per cubic meter minimal risk level under federal guidelines.

In addition to the benzene release, uncombusted emissions documented by optical gas imaging spewed from the plant’s ground flare on April 13 and 14, according to video released by the environmental organization Earthworks. These incidents were just the latest in a series of what the groups say are major pollution events at Shell’s Pennsylvania facility.

February 17, 2023

Guest column: Protecting industrial workers from toxic chemicals

February started with news that’s all too familiar in the United States: An incident involving highly toxic industrial chemicals sparked a large fire, threatening an explosion, forcing evacuations, and putting workers and community members directly in harm’s way. In this case, the danger came from a derailed train in Ohio that was hauling cancer-causing vinyl chloride, used to make certain types of plastic; toxic phosgene, an industrial chemical that was also used as a chemical weapon in World War I; and other substances.

This chemical disaster posed a threat to rail workers, first responders, and community members, and after a controlled burn to prevent an explosion, reported fish kills, and the discovery of additional toxic chemicals in some of the train cars, lingering questions remain about the long-term hazards facing community residents. It’s one of many high-profile fires, spills, leaks, explosions, and other industrial incidents to have made the news over the years. But extreme, acute threats like the Ohio derailment aren’t the only toxic chemical dangers facing workers and surrounding communities.

Many chronic, lower-level exposures happen in workplaces every day, posing significant but far more hidden risks to workers, their families, and their communities. Toxic exposures in industrial facilities and other settings can cause a range of health problems. These include nervous system effects like headaches, dizziness, confusion, and memory loss; cancer; breathing problems including coughing, wheezing, shortness of breath, and asthma attacks; skin irritation and rashes; and reproductive and developmental effects such as infertility, birth defects, and other health problems.