Post by pavel on Jan 19, 2016 19:38:58 GMT -6
Pasadena Refinery Linked To Scandal In Brazil Needs A New Pollution Permit
Even though it’s not the biggest refinery along the Houston Ship Channel, the facility known as the Pasadena Refining System has attracted attention here and internationally as well.
“It is one of the smaller ones, but it is disproportionately responsible for pollution,” says Adrian Shelley, director of Air Alliance Houston, an environmental group.
Shelley’s group is working to get nearby residents to attend a public hearing later this month. It’s being held by the Texas Commission on Environment Quality, the TCEQ, to hear testimony about whether Pasadena Refining System should be granted a new permit to emit air pollution.
Over the years, the TCEQ says it has investigated and cited the facility many times. In 2012, the agency slapped it with a $757,000 penalty. Then, in a case that’s still on-going (see the document below), a $405,000 penalty has been proposed for what the commission said were the “unauthorized” releases of hundreds of thousands of pounds of air pollutants including sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxides that can cause smog and hurt people with breathing problems.
Read more: www.texasstandard.org/stories/pasadena-refinery-linked-to-scandal-in-brazil-needs-a-new-pollution-permit/
Even though it’s not the biggest refinery along the Houston Ship Channel, the facility known as the Pasadena Refining System has attracted attention here and internationally as well.
“It is one of the smaller ones, but it is disproportionately responsible for pollution,” says Adrian Shelley, director of Air Alliance Houston, an environmental group.
Shelley’s group is working to get nearby residents to attend a public hearing later this month. It’s being held by the Texas Commission on Environment Quality, the TCEQ, to hear testimony about whether Pasadena Refining System should be granted a new permit to emit air pollution.
Over the years, the TCEQ says it has investigated and cited the facility many times. In 2012, the agency slapped it with a $757,000 penalty. Then, in a case that’s still on-going (see the document below), a $405,000 penalty has been proposed for what the commission said were the “unauthorized” releases of hundreds of thousands of pounds of air pollutants including sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxides that can cause smog and hurt people with breathing problems.
Read more: www.texasstandard.org/stories/pasadena-refinery-linked-to-scandal-in-brazil-needs-a-new-pollution-permit/