Upset About Upset Emissions

A recent Houston Chronicle article mentions that though our state environmental agency issued 1,756 penalties last year against illegally polluting companies, the fines averaged just $8,300. Many of these companies produce billions of dollars in revenue, suggesting that what many have claimed for years is indeed true: It’s cheaper for companies to pay penalties than prevent pollution.

When public campaigns, official regulations, negligible fines and poor enforcement don’t work, clean air advocates resort to the courts for help. Filing lawsuits sometimes seems to be the only way to get the attention necessary for improving Texas air quality.

Likewise, you might have recently read about Sierra Club and Environment Texas seeking millions in penalties from a lawsuit they filed against the Exxon Baytown facility. Two similar suits, one against Shell and another against Chevron Phillips, settled in the past year or so yielding unprecedented emission reductions from facility “upset” violations, signifying that legal action can be an effective tool.

“Upset” emissions are industrial facility events – equipment malfunctions and breakdowns, unplanned or unscheduled maintenance, startup, or shutdown activities – that result in unauthorized emissions of air contaminants from one or more points. Literally thousands of upset events occur every year along the Houston Ship Channel and each event varies with regard to cause and amount of release.

After reviewing recent data submitted to the Environmental Protection Agency from Houston facilities emitting the largest amounts of the toxic chemicals benzene and 1,3-butadiene emissions, I found that it wasn’t unusual for upset emissions to account for the majority of those emissions released by the facility over the year.