US oil refineries spewing cancer-causing benzene into communities, report finds | Air pollution

A dozen US oil refineries last yr exceeded the federal restrict on average benzene emissions.

Among the 12 refineries that emitted above the utmost level for benzene, 5 were in Texas, 4 in Louisiana, and one each in Pennsylvania, Indiana and the US Virgin Islands, a new evaluation by the Environmental Integrity Challenge revealed on Thursday.

Benzene is a identified carcinogen that is extremely toxic and unstable when uncovered to air. Much of the surplus emissions come by means of leaks from valves, tanks, pumps and other means which are hard to detect.

The Environmental Safety Agency estimates 6.1 million people in the US dwell inside three miles of a refinery, with low-income folks and other people of color represented at charges almost twice that of the overall population.

Out of 129 operable oil refineries in 2021, 118 reported benzene concentration registered at or near the positioning, otherwise known as the fence-line.

Practically half of those refineries released benzene levels above 3 micrograms per cubic meter, which the Environmental Integrity Mission defines as a long-term potential health threat.

The EPA requires facilities to take motion if they exceed a median 9 micrograms per cubic meter, or above “action stage” emission of benzene.

“If [facilities] can’t get their benzene below the motion level, year after year, we actually have to see enforcement from the EPA,” stated Eric Schaeffer, the chief director of the Environmental Integrity Undertaking, in a press conference. “You should start paying penalties when your fence-line ranges persist,” he added.

Lifetime exposure to benzene at levels as low as 0.13 microgram per cubic meter might cause a threat of as much as one further most cancers case for each one million uncovered, based on the EPA. The upper the extent of benzene, the upper the well being threat.

Marathon Petroleum’s Galveston Bay refinery in Texas Metropolis had the highest common web benzene levels in 2021, in accordance with the evaluation of the self-reported data. Roughly 37,000 people stay inside a three-mile radius of the refinery. Amongst them, 62% are individuals of color and 47% are low-income.

“This analysis supplies necessary insight into why the Houston area is an industrial most cancers hotspot,” said Leticia Gutierrez of advocacy group Air Alliance Houston, on the press conference.

“Folks residing near these services have greater [exposure] to lifetime cancer threat than another a part of the state, but the regulatory businesses responsible for defending us proceed to approve permits for these services,” Gutierrez stated.

Environmental Integrity Undertaking notes that its analysis didn't measure concentrations of benzene within neighborhoods adjoining to refineries, and doesn't mirror the precise ranges of benzene inside the communities.

Marathon Petroleum and the EPA didn't immediately respond to a request for remark.