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

A dozen US oil refineries last yr exceeded the federal limit on common benzene emissions.

Among the 12 refineries that emitted above the utmost level for benzene, five had been in Texas, four in Louisiana, and one every in Pennsylvania, Indiana and the US Virgin Islands, a brand new analysis by the Environmental Integrity Challenge revealed on Thursday.

Benzene is a identified carcinogen that's extremely toxic and volatile when uncovered to air. A lot of the excess emissions come by leaks from valves, tanks, pumps and different means which can be exhausting to detect.

The Environmental Safety Company estimates 6.1 million folks in the US dwell within three miles of a refinery, with low-income people and other people of colour represented at rates practically twice that of the final inhabitants.

Out of 129 operable oil refineries in 2021, 118 reported benzene concentration registered at or close to the site, in any other case known as the fence-line.

Practically half of those refineries launched benzene levels above 3 micrograms per cubic meter, which the Environmental Integrity Mission defines as a long-term potential well being risk.

The EPA requires services to take motion in the event that they exceed a median 9 micrograms per cubic meter, or above “motion degree” emission of benzene.

“If [facilities] can’t get their benzene under the motion stage, 12 months after year, we really have to see enforcement from the EPA,” stated Eric Schaeffer, the manager director of the Environmental Integrity Challenge, in a press convention. “You must begin paying penalties when your fence-line ranges persist,” he added.

Lifetime exposure to benzene at levels as little as 0.13 microgram per cubic meter might trigger a risk of as much as one additional cancer case for each a million exposed, in response to the EPA. The higher the extent of benzene, the higher the health threat.

Marathon Petroleum’s Galveston Bay refinery in Texas City had the very best common internet benzene ranges in 2021, in keeping with the analysis of the self-reported information. Roughly 37,000 folks stay inside a three-mile radius of the refinery. Amongst them, 62% are folks of shade and 47% are low-income.

“This analysis supplies important perception into why the Houston space is an industrial most cancers hotspot,” said Leticia Gutierrez of advocacy group Air Alliance Houston, at the press conference.

“Folks living close to these facilities have better [exposure] to lifetime cancer danger than any other part of the state, yet the regulatory businesses chargeable for defending us proceed to approve permits for these services,” Gutierrez said.

Environmental Integrity Undertaking notes that its analysis did not measure concentrations of benzene within neighborhoods adjoining to refineries, and does not mirror the precise levels of benzene throughout the communities.

Marathon Petroleum and the EPA did not instantly reply to a request for comment.