(C) Common Dreams This story was originally published by Common Dreams and is unaltered. . . . . . . . . . . Months after residents sound the alarm, Pennsylvania 'cracks' down on Shell plant [1] ['Katarina Sabados', 'Kenzi Abou-Sabe', 'Https', 'Media-Cldnry.S-Nbcnews.Com Image Upload Newscms', 'Hannah Rappleye', 'Katarina Sabados Is A Reporter With The Global Reporting Centre.', 'Kenzi Abou-Sabe Is A Reporter', 'Producer In The Nbc News Investigative Unit.', 'Rappleye Is A Reporter With The Investigative Unit At Nbc News', 'With A Focus On Criminal Justice'] Date: 2023-09 It officially switched on last November, with an interim permit that allows it to emit a yearly total of 516 tons of “volatile organic compounds” — chemicals such as benzene, toluene and naphthalene, which are linked to a range of adverse health effects, from respiratory irritation to nerve damage. But state records show that before operations even began, Shell had exceeded its 12-month VOC emissions ceiling due in part to “flaring” events — when excess gasses are burned off instead of released into the atmosphere. “It’s not normal to look up in the sky and see flames,” said local resident Hilary Flint, 31. “The sky has been a completely different color since they’ve become operational.” Hilary Flint lives in Enon Valley, Pa., within a half-hour of both the site of the East Palestine, Ohio train derailment and the Shell cracker plant. Katarina Sabados / Global Reporting Centre The enforcement action comes three weeks after NBC News and the Global Reporting Centre first started asking Shell and DEP questions about the plant, and not long after environmental advocacy groups sued Shell over its excess emissions. The agency’s consent order details a range of violations. In addition to repeatedly breaching emissions limits for VOCs, nitrogen oxide, carbon monoxide and “hazardous air pollutants” — otherwise known as air toxics — DEP cited a slew of malfunctions at the plant dating back to June 2022. In late March, Shell had temporarily halted operations at the plant to conduct repairs and, as part of the consent order, work at the plant can restart effective immediately. But according to the terms of the agreement, it may be months before Shell is in compliance with its emissions limits. “If my car doesn’t pass inspection, I’m not really allowed to drive that car,” said James Fabisiak, director of the Center for Healthy Environments & Communities at the University of Pittsburgh. “There’s no negotiation about ‘well, I’ll get my snow tires next week.’” The $10 million agreement doesn’t preclude DEP from fining Shell for future violations, but Fabisiak said that while it’s good that DEP has taken enforcement action, he is concerned that Shell is being allowed to restart operations even though the company anticipates being in violation of its rolling 12-month emissions limits into fall 2023, according to the agreement. Generally speaking, Fabisiak said, “It’s cheaper for industry to pay the penalty, pay the fine, to be allowed to continue to pollute.” A Shell spokesperson said, “We’ve worked closely with the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection (PaDEP) to fix the issues that led to prior violations, and Shell Polymers Monaca (SPM) is resuming production as a result. We’ve learned from previous issues and remain committed to protecting people and the environment, as well as being a responsible neighbor.” “At first I was happy they’re being held accountable,” said Flint, who lives in Enon Valley, Pa. “But the more I thought about it, the more I realized that this is just putting a price on our lives.” A burn pit To date, Shell has submitted 43 malfunction reports to DEP. And since the plant became fully operational in November, state records show the agency has dealt 11 “notices of violation” to the company, nearly all due to excess emissions. Local environmental activists and residents have been sounding the alarm for months, and for some, the civil penalty is a complicated victory. “I think it is really the bare minimum,” said Anais Peterson, 25, an organizer with Eyes on Shell, a local, citizen-led advocacy group that has been pushing for more transparency about, and regulation of, the plant’s emissions. Anais Peterson, left, is an organizer with Eyes on Shell, a citizen-led advocacy group in Beaver County, Pa. Katarina Sabados / Global Reporting Centre “How much wiggle room are we giving them?” Peterson said. “If Shell has said, ‘We can’t operate in compliance,’ the DEP should say, ‘Then you’re not operating.’” In Beaver County, forested hills frame towns tightly packed along the banks of the Ohio River and its tributaries. At night, an eerie, sometimes orange glow from the Shell cracker beams through the sky, visible for miles. In February and March, two separate, dramatic flaring events occurred as residents were already struggling to cope with a train derailment in East Palestine, Ohio — just a half-hour away — that ignited a toxic inferno. Plumes of black smoke and orange fire billowed from the cracker’s stacks for hours. Portions of a Norfolk Southern freight train burn after a derailment in East Palestine, Ohio, in February. Gene J. Puskar / AP file “I feel like we’re kind of next to a burn pit,” said Rachel Eshom, a 38-year-old registered nurse who lives roughly two miles from the Shell plant. Residents of the Ohio River Valley, which includes swaths of Ohio and southwest Pennsylvania, are no strangers to pollutive industry and catastrophic environmental events. Before the train derailment, a chemical fire in 2019 forced residents to shelter in place, and a natural gas pipeline explosion in 2018 destroyed one home and prompted evacuation of 25 others. Eshom said she and her husband have experienced headaches and a burning sensation in their eyes when driving past the plant. She wants to move farther away but doesn’t know where to go. “It’s just pollution everywhere,” she said. Rachel Eshom holds her daughter in their home roughly two miles from the Shell cracker plant. Katarina Sabados / Global Reporting Centre Communities that host petrochemical plants in Louisiana and on the Texas Gulf Coast have experienced hazardous levels of air pollution, accidents and industrial waste spills, including spills of the so-called "nurdles," or tiny plastic pellets, that crackers produce. In 2022, Shell and one of its contractors were forced to pay a $670,000 civil penalty for spilling industrial waste along Shell’s 97-mile stretch of pipeline, built to supply ethane to the cracker. A Shell spokesperson said the company “cooperated with all relevant local, state, and federal agencies and affected communities to ensure Falcon was constructed in a safe and environmentally responsible manner.” Over the past decade, state leaders in Ohio, West Virginia and Pennsylvania have pursued the plastics industry as a way to breathe economic life into the region, offering multinational companies more than a billion dollars in tax breaks and other subsidies to draw in plastics manufacturing projects. Shell said it planned to create just over 600 permanent jobs. Data obtained by the Global Reporting Centre through a public records request shows that 457 full-time employees worked at the plant as of early 2022. Shell said it could not provide updated employment numbers. Beaver County Commissioner Daniel Camp expressed support for the cracker during its construction and believes it will ultimately benefit the region. But since it turned on, he said he’s heard regularly from residents who are concerned about air quality. “The one thing that we need to do moving forward is making sure that our state and federal leaders hold them accountable,” Camp said. “Do I believe $10 million is going to do any damage to Shell as a whole? Absolutely not. It’s a slap on the wrist. But it’s in the right direction.” The Beaver County Chamber of Commerce declined a request for an interview but said, “We have always believed that the growth of industry through businesses like Shell is vital and important for our county.” ‘You shouldn’t be having all these problems’ Petrochemical plants often conduct controlled burning of flammable gas, called “flaring,” to get rid of unwanted waste or to release pressure in the event of a safety concern or an emergency. But flares can also spew large amounts of methane, benzene and other pollutants into the atmosphere. Richard Corsi, an environmental engineer and dean of the Engineering College at the University of California Davis, said flaring is a “necessary evil.” Corsi’s research focus is indoor air pollution, and he has previously done emissions-related research funded by both Shell and BP. “Flares are kind of this emergency response to, ‘We’ve got a problem, we’ve got to start burning stuff,” he said. “The hope is that you’re not forming lots of bad pollutants, but you always form some pollutants when you combust.” According to Wednesday’s consent order, the cracker plant had nine flaring violations between June 23, 2022 and April 5, 2023. [END] --- [1] Url: https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/pennsylvania-cracks-down-shell-plastics-cracker-plant-rcna82750 Published and (C) by Common Dreams Content appears here under this condition or license: Creative Commons CC BY-NC-ND 3.0.. via Magical.Fish Gopher News Feeds: gopher://magical.fish/1/feeds/news/commondreams/