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April 27, 2000 For more information, contact Ravi Rangan, Air Quality Management, 302-323-4542, or Donald White, Information and Education, 302-739-4506 Motiva Assessed $100,000 Penalty for Air Pollution ViolationsMotiva Enterprises, LLC, located in Delaware City, was issued a Notice of Administrative Penalty Assessment and Order with a penalty of $100,000 yesterday by DNREC Secretary Nicholas A. DiPasquale. The Order was issued for violations of Delaware's regulations governing the control of air pollution and specific permits issued to the facility. The Department determined that Motiva was in violation by causing or contributing to the discharge of an air contaminant. Motiva was cited for excess emissions and opacity exceedences. Motiva owns and operates a power plant at its petroleum refinery. In addition to providing electrical power for the refinery complex, the steam from the power plant is also used in several plant processes throughout the facility. Four boilers generate steam to the refinery operations and any interruption in the steam supply causes upsets in the affected processes. According to the findings of facts, on October 26 and 27, 1998, certain conditions at the Motiva power plant caused an extraction steam turbine to go to a no-load condition, which interrupted the steam supply to the refinery. Although steam generation was increased through two of the boiler units, it was not adequate to meet the demands of the refinery process. As a result of this malfunction, opacity (smoke) exceedences occurred at two process units, the power plant, and both refinery flares for both days noted in the Order. Excess emissions of sulfur dioxide at the sulfur recovery plant and nitrogen oxide at the crude unit were also caused by the steam emergency condition. As a result of these emissions, odor violations were documented following citizen complaints. The complaints about these odors were received from as far away as Pennsylvania. Several individuals reported that they experienced irritation of their eyes and nasal passages. The Department determined Motiva was in violation of Regulations 14 and 19 of Delaware's air pollution control regulations. The company also was in violation of five permit conditions dealing with emissions of air contaminants, visible smoke emissions and odor violations. -30- Document no. 40-01/00/04/24 |
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