Recent “upsets” like tripped compressors, pressure loss and freezing weather resulted in thousands of pounds of unauthorized pollution but no fines or citations from the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality.
Critics of the affirmative defense say it allows companies to defer expensive equipment upgrades and maintenance without fear of consequences for dangerous malfunctions.
“In only one half of one percent of these incidents did the state use its legal authority to require the companies to analyze the cause of the problem and take concrete action to avoid these pollution releases in the future,” the study said.filed by Shell with the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality, a fire at its Deer Park chemical plant shut down the refinery’s olefins units on Friday afternoon. The fire went out early Saturday morning but then reignited and burned until Monday.
In response to questions, TCEQ said it did not consider those levels to be “atypically high concentrations,” sittingAccording to Tim Doty, a former manager of the TCEQ’s mobile monitoring program, those readings should have spurred further investigation.
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