Valero Energy Requiring Upgraded Equipment

Valero Energy Requiring Upgraded Equipment



Aug. 2007  - The Department of Justice and the 
USA Environmental Protection Agency have reached an agreement with 
petroleum refiner Valero Energy Corp. that requires new and upgraded 
pollution abatement equipment, obtains a $4.25 million penalty, and 
secures environmental projects to help communities affected by refinery 
emissions. 
The state of Ohio and Memphis-Shelby County, Tennessee have joined in the 
consent decree and will receive a portion of the civil penalty. 
The agreement requires that Valero spend $232 million on new and upgraded 
pollution controls at refineries in Port Arthur, Texas; Memphis, 
Tennessee; and Lima, Ohio. These facilities were formerly owned by Premcor 
Inc. and were purchased by Valero in late 2005. 
When fully implemented, the pollution controls will reduce annual 
emissions of nitrogen oxide by more than 1,870 tons per year and sulfur 
dioxide by more than 1,810 tons per year, the EPA said. 
Emissions of carbon monoxide, volatile organic compounds and particulate 
matter from each of the refineries will also be reduced. These pollutants 
can cause serious respiratory problems and exacerbate cases of childhood 
asthma. 
The settlement requires an additional $1.6 million to be spent on projects 
serving the Port Arthur, Texas community, a low-income city surrounded by 
chemical and petrochemical industries. 
Valero will spend $1 million to support a local health center serving 
uninsured and underinsured residents of the Port Arthur area, for the 
diagnosis and treatment of asthma and other respiratory illnesses that may 
be caused or exacerbated by air pollution. 
A mobile air monitoring van for the Local Emergency Response Commission 
will be provided. 
The company will provide "shelter-in-place” air control systems at the 
Booker T. Washington Elementary and Memorial 9th Grade Center schools to 
detect, isolate and filter air pollution that may result from emissions in 
the Port Arthur area. 
The company will underwrite a project to replace existing high-emitting 
water heaters with new low-emission water heaters in low-income residences 
in the Port Arthur area. 
Supplemental projects also will be performed in the communities near the 
Lima and Memphis refineries, such as the installation of equipment on 
municipal diesel trucks and buses to reduce particulate and ozone-forming 
emissions, and the installation of new equipment to control wastewater 
treatment plant odors. 
This settlement is part of the EPA’s national effort to reduce air 
emissions from refineries. Through federal settlements such as the one 
reached today, approximately 84 percent of domestic refining capacity is 
now operating under pollution reduction agreements. Including the 
settlement with Valero, 89 refineries located in 26 states across the 
nation are now under agreements to address environmental problems and to 
invest over $4.7 billion in new pollution control technologies. 
In June 2005, a similar settlement was reached with Valero that addressed 
the refineries it owned at that time under which Valero committed to spend 
at least $700 million at 14 refineries nationwide. 
The agreement was lodged in the U.S. District Court for the Western 
District of Texas and is subject to a 30-day public comment period and 
final court approval. A copy of the consent decree is online at: 
http://www.usdoj.gov/enrd/Consent_Decrees.html. 

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