A refinery that had been releasing excess amounts of sulfur dioxide is back in environmental compliance.
The Delaware City Refinery first reported an equipment failure leading to increased sulfur dioxide emissions on May 26. Two and a half weeks later, the refinery says it again has chemical emissions under control.
While the amount of sulfur dioxide coming from the refinery exceeded environmental regulations, officials with DNREC say the amount of the chemical in the air never came close to surpassing the safety window established by the EPA.
“That line is the National Ambient Air Quality Standard for sulfur dioxide and all of our monitoring data shows that the air quality in Delaware stayed well below that," Angela Marconi, director of DNREC’s Division of Air Quality.
While EPA says anything over 75 parts per billion per hour is unsafe, the refinery’s emissions topped out at 29 parts per billion on June 1. Data from the nearby Route 9 monitoring site indicates the refinery has generally been emitting no measurable amounts of sulfur dioxide, with brief small spikes in the three to six parts per billion range on Tuesday and Wednesday.
Now that the equipment is operational again, the refinery is required to file a report with DNREC, which will also gather additional facts.
““The refinery, same as any facility that has an incident like this, has a responsibility to submit a follow up report and then we will review the information that we have and gather additional information as needed to determine the extent of the violation," Marconi said.
Residents in the area turned out in force for a town hall with DNREC and refinery officials last week, and state lawmakers have introduced House Bill 210, the Pollution Accountability Act, to increase penalties for polluters. The bill also reinvests more of the fines into affected communities.
