1. Southeast Los Angeles: A Toxic Hotspot.
Some of CBE's work has focused in Southern California on the communities of Southeast Los Angeles County (SELA). SELA is a predominantly Latino community that is also home to the highest concentration of toxic chemical generating facilities in the nation. CBE's research has uncovered a strong correlation between the location of facilities listed on the toxic release inventory (TRI) and the percentage of people of color living in the area.\1\ This correlation has been called "environmental racism," or "environmental injustice." Additionally the closer one looks at our communities the more one recognizes the congestion caused by multiple toxic facilities, this is a phenomenon called "toxic hot spots".
2. Powerine/CENCO: A Case Study in the Importance of the Clean Air Act New Source Review Requirements.
I came to work in the environmental arena not in as a back-packer or hiker, but out of necessity from being a labor union president whose members were subjected to frequent accidents, explosions, and releases from one of the worst refineries in California -- Powerine. After a struggle of many years, Powerine ceased operating in 1995. Now a new company called CENCO seeks to reopen the refinery without first installing the Best Available Control Technology (BACT), in plain violation of the federal Clean Air Act.
Santa Fe Springs, the home of the Powerine Refinery, is located in the southern portion of Los Angeles County, 12 miles from downtown Los Angeles. The area of Santa Fe Springs is slightly more than 9 square miles with a resident population of 16,400 and a daytime employment population of approximately 80,000.\2\ The ethnic composition of city residents is 67% Latino.
Powerine was identified by the South Coast Air Quality Management District ("SCAQMD" or "Air District") as having the worst record for air quality violations and public complaints of any refinery in the South Coast Air Basin.\3\ The SCAQMD levied hundreds of thousands of dollars of fines on Powerine for various violations of the Health and Safety code, including criminal violations, and numerous toxic chemical releases that have endangered the health and safety of area workers and residents.\4\ The Santa Fe springs Fire Department Chief has stated that "The Powerine Refinery generates and abnormally high number of releases [[of toxic gases]."\5\
Powerine is among a small handful of refineries in the state still using the deadly chemical hydrofluoric acid (HF), which was used as a chemical warfare weapon during World War One. A May 1989 Los Angeles Times article revealed that Powerine was not adequately equipped to handle a major HF leak. An accidental release of HF from Powerine could kill hundreds, or even thousands, of area workers and residents.
In addition to accidental releases, Powerine was responsible for significant ongoing emissions, including releases of such highly toxic and/or carcinogenic chemicals as lead, mercury, benzene, cadmium, xylene, toluene, and a long list of other toxic chemicals.\6\ Indeed, despite Powerine's classification as a "small" refinery, it poses almost twice as great a cancer risk to the surrounding community than does the Chevron Richmond refinery, one of the largest refineries in the nation,\7\ with a throughput approximately five times larger than Powerine's.
Powerine was also responsible for dumping massive quantities (over 400,000 tons) of "criteria" pollutants into the air each year, such as nitrogen oxides (NOx), sulfur oxides (SOx), particulate matter (PM-10), and volatile organic compounds (VOCs).\8\ NOx and VOCs form ozone, which is known to cause permanent lung scarring, asthma and emphysema, among other problems. PM-10 has been labeled one of the most serious public health threats, causing respiratory illnesses such as asthma and emphysema,\9\ and can carry cancer-causing chemicals deep into the lungs. VOCs are not only ozone-precursors, but many are also highly toxic chemicals in their own right. Despite its small" size, Powerine was ranked the ninth worst emitter of PM-10 in the entire four-county South Coast Air District, and among the top twenty worst for ROCs and SOx.\10\ For 1991 and 1992, Powerine was the 12th worst overall polluter in the basin.\11\ Air samples taken downwind from Powerine reveal elevated levels of air contaminants.\12\
For decades, the predominantly Latino community of Santa Fe Springs and the neighboring areas which live downwind of the refinery, have borne the brunt of Powerine's toxic pollution. The clustering of environmental hazards in communities of color has been deemed "environmental racism."
My involvement with Powerine stems from the fact that the refinery is located directly upwind from the city maintenance yard where approximately 75 members of the City Employees' Association report to work. I was the President of that union for several years, during which time employees voiced concern over unidentified noxious odors, accidental fires, ominous clouds, and paint eroding from cars parked near the refinery. These concerns, coupled with the cancer-related deaths of several yard employees prompted the Employees Association to take action to protect the health and safety of yard employees threatened by the Powerine facility.
Between February 15, 1989 and October 31, 1990 there were 46 separate complaint dates listed by the Fire Department. These included complaints about black smoke, gas oil, and rotten egg odors, SO2 releases, and a release of deadly hydrogen fluoride gas. On March 15, 1989, Powerine and three company officials were fined $177,750 for knowingly releasing pollutants into the air between December 18, 1987 and January 2, 1989. Thirty-eight different charges were originally filed against Powerine for these releases. The fine was among the largest ever levied. Deputy District Attorney Fred Macksoud said that some of Powerine's emission violations remained uncorrected for as long as a year. "This case was an aggravated case," Macksoud said, "We put a heavy hand on these people so they'll learn not to violate clean air rules." In addition to fines of the company, three company officials were personally fined for their failures in their responsibilities to oversee faulty equipment responsible for releases.\13\
On January 7, 1992, Santa Fe Springs fire fighters were awakened by an explosion at the Powerine refinery. The three alarm fire took nearly four hours to knock down. The explosion and fire were caused by a propane leak that was ignited by a nearby heater. One worker was hit in the face with a piece of flying equipment and was hospitalized with an eye injury. Fire hydrant water supply was too low because water pressure had not been increased by Powerine as required. (Santa Fe Springs Fire Department Incident Report # 200601, January 7, 1992; Daily News, January 8, 1992).
In 1993 Powerine settled a personal injury lawsuit with Patty Guthrie. She was working across the street from Powerine when a vaporized acid cloud from Powerine was accidentally released onto Ms. Gutherie's worksite (Johnson Trucking Co.). Powerine's incident report confirmed that the release was a result of a breakdown of a sulfur unit. While Powerine did not comment on the case, the woman was awarded $850,000. She alleged that she suffered from traumatic emphysema, which allows a person to inhale, but not to exhale. Her attorney commented "Her life has been cut short and she's going to have to be provided for." (Daily News, Jan. 9, 1993) Finally, after decades of such problems, the Powerine refinery ceased operations in 1995.
3. CENCO Attempts to Resurrect the Powerine Refinery.
This history of accidents is highly relevant to the matter before the committee today. A new company, owned by televangelist Pat Robertson's Charitable Trust, has proposed to reopen the Powerine Refinery. CBE and the United States Environmental Protection Agency have sued CENCO in federal District Court to require the company to comply with requirements of the Clean Air Act.
The story of the Powerine Refinery points out the importance of the Clean Air Act. It was years of inadequate enforcement of the Act and repeated violations of the Act that resulted in Powerine's long line of accidents and releases, and ultimately to the closure of the facility. If the South Coast Air District and EPA had aggressively enforced the requirements of the Act, Powerine could have been made to run cleaner, more safely, and possibly more profitably.
The proposed re-opening of the refinery by CENCO points out the importance of enforcing the Clean Air Act's New Source Review Requirements ("NSR") - the very provisions that have been put into question. The Act requires new facilities, major expansions, and facilities proposed for re-opening after long closures, to install Best Available Control Technology (BACT), through a process call New Source Review. The importance of the New Source Review requirement could not be clearer than in the case of Powerine. It is obvious that prior to opening, CENCO must upgrade the refinery to incorporate the Best Available Control Technology. This is the only way to ensure that when and if the refinery reopens, it will not again become the worst refinery in the state. It is also important for CENCO to comply with other New Source Review requirements such as the analysis of safer alternative technologies, such as the use of sulfuric acid rather than hydrofluoric acid, and the consideration of alternative locations farther from population centers. If this body weakens those New Source requirements, we can only expect a return to Powerine's days of accidents, explosions, and toxic chemical releases.
The New Source Review requirement was one of the most important compromises in the Clean Air Act. Rather than requiring all existing facilities to install modern technology immediately, NSR requires installation of Best Available Control Technology only for new construction, major expansions, or reopening of facilities after permanent closure. Congress believed that the NSR process would result in the gradual modernization of all of the nation's major polluting facilities as those facilities were expanded and rebuilt, when such retooling is most cost-effective. If this body weakens this requirement, then we can expect a future of continued operation of obsolete, polluting, and dangerous refineries and other heavy industries.
4. Refineries are the number one stationary source of air pollution.
The story of Powerine and CENCO is by no means unique. A Report released by CBE and the Contra Costa Building and Construction Trades Council just this week concludes that the incidence of serious refinery accidents is on the rise in recent years in at least one California County.14 The Report recommends stricter enforcement of existing laws and adoption of new community and worker safeguards.
The United States' 164 Petroleum Refineries are the single largest stationary sources of air pollution in the country. In 1998 there were 27 refineries in Texas, 24 in California, 20 in Louisiana, 6 in Pennsylvania, 6 in New Jersey, and 6 in Illinois. Most of these refineries are decades old, and some are over a century old. Modernizing these facilities is a key to achieving clean air throughout the nation.
Refineries are the single largest stationary source of volatile organic compounds (VOCs), the primary precursor of urban smog - releasing over 246,069 tons of VOCs each year. Refineries are the fourth largest industrial source of toxic emissions, releasing over 58 million pounds per year. Refineries are the single largest source of benzene emissions - a chemical known to cause cancer in humans - releasing over 2.9 million pounds per year. Refineries also release a wide variety of other toxic chemicals, including MTBE, toluene (7 million pounds), xylenes (4.2 million pounds), methyl ethyl ketone (4.1 million pounds), among numerous others.\15\ Refineries are the second largest industrial source of sulfur dioxide emissions, which create acid rain, the third largest industrial source of nitrogen oxides, which contribute to smog, and the fourth largest industrial source of particulate matter emissions.\16\
In addition to these reported emissions, government reports estimate that 80 million pounds of refinery VOC emissions go unreported each year, including 15 million pounds of toxic pollutants and 1 million pounds of benzene.\17\ These inaccurately reported emissions point out the need for continuous emissions monitors (CEMs) at refineries and other major sources of pollution. CEMs are clearly provided for in the Clean Air Act, but the requirement has not yet been enforced adequately.
A recent study demonstrates that non-smokers living downwind of refineries experience markedly decreased lung capacity.\18\ In 1995 US EPA estimated that 4.5 million persons living within 30 miles of oil refineries were exposed to benzene at concentrations that posed cancer risks higher than the Clean Air Act's acceptable risk threshold, and some experience benzene cancer risks as high as 180 times the acceptable threshold.\19\ Numerous studies show that communities burdened by hazardous wastes produced by these facilities and others are disproportionately often communities of color.\20\
5. There are Cost-Effective Means to Drastically Reduce Refinery Pollution While Saving or Even Creating New Jobs.
More than half of refinery VOCs come from "fugitive emissions" -- leaks from refinery valves, storage tanks, flanges, seals, connectors.\21\ As the Waxman report concludes, many of these leaks can be sealed by "simply tightening a valve with a wrench."\22\ The Report further concludes that eliminating such leaks would be equivalent to removing the VOC exhaust emissions from five million new cars.\Id.\ Indeed, the Clean Air Act itself requires such leak detection and reporting.\23\
Through Clean Air Act enforcement actions, CBE has reached agreements with numerous refineries throughout California to install technologies to reduce VOC and other emissions. For example, CBE's collaboration with the International Longshore and Warehouse Workers Union indicated that several oil companies in Los Angeles had failed to install marine vapor recovery equipment required by the Clean Air Act to capture toxic gases released during oil tanker loading. The equipment is similar to vapor recovery nozzles common at gas stations. Through a series of enforcement actions the companies, (Ultramar, GATX, and Chevron), agreed to use the required equipment, reducing VOC emissions by over 95%. Some of the companies agreed to reduce VOC emissions further by installing "leakless" bellows valves on their refineries. Not only did the companies remain in operation, but they have enjoyed some of their most profitable periods in the time since the agreements were reached. In fact, some of the companies report that the newer leakless technology has reduced their operating cost since it reduces the amount of ongoing inspection and maintenance required.
CBE has a history of identifying technologies that not only reduce pollution and increase safety, but also save money in the long run. For example, CBE worked with Chevron's Richmond, California refinery to conduct a pollution prevention audit that resulted in installation of technologies that reduced lead emissions by 97%, reduced nickel emissions by 86%, and reduced chromium emissions by 67%.\24\ CBE reached an agreement with Unocal's Rodeo refinery, now owned by Tosco, to reduce its toxic air pollution by 143 tons per year (a 28% reduction) through installation of leakless valves and valve tightening. CBE has worked with numerous other companies to capture pollution that would otherwise have been released into the atmosphere and turn it into usable product. CBE worked with companies in the South San Francisco Bay Area, to identify technologies that reduced heavy metal discharge by over 90%, while saving enough money to pay for itself within five years.\25\ CBE's work recognizes that pollution is often wasted product. Pollution prevention can result in the recapture of marketable product that otherwise would have been lost to the environment.
Contrary to popular belief, enforcement of strict environmental laws can have a positive impact on the economy. A Boston University study showed that strict air pollution regulations on Los Angeles area refineries actually had a positive impact on employment, probably due to the hiring of people to install and maintain abatement equipment. The study further found that productivity at refineries forced to install pollution control equipment was higher than at other similar refineries not subject to such regulation because the need to invest in pollution abatement equipment accelerated management decisions to invest in other more productive technology.\26\ Similarly, an MIT study showed "a consistent and systematic positive correlation between stronger state environmentalism and stronger economic performance across four of the five indicators. States with stronger environmental standards tended to have higher growth in their gross state products, total employment, construction employment, and labor productivity than states that ranked lower environmentally."\27\ These conclusions have lead some labor organizations, such as the Building and Construction Trades Union, to collaborate with CBE and other environmental groups with the understanding that environmental enforcement can mean more jobs building and operating pollution control equipment.
6. CONCLUSION
On behalf of Communities for a Better Environment and its 20,000 members, I urge this Committee to leave the Act in tact, and ensure that future generations will enjoy a better environment. Recent research indicates a startling connection between environmental health and learning, concluding that children who live in high pollution areas have statistically lower test scores. Approximately 12 million children in this country suffer from learning, developmental or behavioral problems, and the number of learning disabled children enrolled in special education programs increased nearly 200 percent over the last twenty years. Soaring rates of childhood asthma, especially among inner city youth, have been a particular concern. The resulting respiratory problems often diminish learning capacity and achievement. Increasingly, scientists and regulators alike are linking these adverse health effects among children to environmental pollution. With the health of our children at stake, it is clear that we must redouble our efforts to reduce harmful air pollution, not roll-back important protections that are critical to achieving healthful air quality.
In particular, CBE recommends the following public policy actions:
1. Toxic Use Reduction: Polluters should be encouraged to reduce the use of toxic chemicals and to replace such chemicals with non-toxic alternatives. The best way to reduce the release and disposal of such chemicals is to prevent their use in the first place.
2. Pollution Prevention: Polluters should be required to prevent chemicals from entering the environment, rather than focusing resources on much more expensive efforts to remediate pollution after it has contaminated soil, air, or water.
3. Precautionary Principle: The precautionary principle common in the medical field should be applied equally to the environmental field. Chemicals should be demonstrated to be safe prior to their introduction into the environment.
Respectfully submitted,
Carlos J. Porras
Executive Director
\1\ CBE Report, "Holding Our Breath."
\2\City of Santa Fe Springs, Discovering Santa Fe Springs, California, Undated Pamphlet.
\3\SCAQMD statement (October 1989).
\4\Los Angeles Time (Mar. 23, 1989); SCAQMD databases for Jan.1, 1990 - April 7, 1994.
\5\Los Angeles Times (Oct. 5, 1989).
\6\Draft Environmental Impact Report (DEIR) Powerine Oil Company Reformulated Fuels Project (Feb. 16, 1994), p. 4-14.
\7\Powerine existing cancer risk level is 14.7 per million. DEIR p. 3-12. Chevron Richmond existing cancer risk level is 8.4 per million. DEIR for Chevron Richmond Reformulated Fuels Project p. IV.D.16.
\8\SCAQMD, "The Top 20 Polluters for 1991 and 1992" (June 30, 1993).
\9\Draft Final Socio-Economic Report for 1991 Air Quality Management Plan, SCAQMD, p. 4-1 (May 1991).
\10\Los Angeles Times (Jan. 9, 1992).
\11\SCAQMD, "The Top 20 Polluters for 1991 and 1992" (Jun.30, 1993).
\12\DEIR p. 3-11.
\13\L.A. Times, (March 23, 1989), attached.
\14\CBE and Contra Costa Building and Construction Trades Council Report, "No Accident!" (April 2001).
\15\"Oil Refineries Fail to Report Millions of Ponds of Harmful Emissions," U.S. House of Representatives, Minority Staff, Special Investigations Division, Committee on Government Reform, Prepared for Rep. Henry Waxman. (Nov. 10, 1999) (Hereinafter, "Waxman Report") pp.i, 3.
\16\Waxman Report, p.4.
\17\Waxman Report, p.ii.
\18\ Detels, et al., American Journal of Public Health (Mar. 1991).
\19\ EPA, "Regulatory Impact Assessment for the Petroleum Refinery NESHAP: Revised Draft for Promulgation," 211-212 (July 1995).
\20\ See, e.g., "Toxic Wastes and Race," Civil Rights Commission of the United Church of Christ. (1987)
\21\ Waxman Report at p.3.
\22\ Waxman Report, p.iii.
\23\ 40 CFR 60.482.
\24\ 31:8 Environment 45 (Oct. 1989)
\25\ CBE Report, "Clean, Safe Jobs: A Sustainable Manufacturing Model." (1994)
\26\ Berman and Bui, National Bureau of Economic Research (1998).
\27\ Meyer, "Environmentalism and Economic Prosperity: An Update" (Feb. 16, 1993).