Environmentalists issue suit against ExxonMobil's Baytown site

ERJ staff report (DS)

Houston, Texas -- Sierra Club and Environment Texas have filed a lawsuit in federal district court against ExxonMobil Corporation and two subsidiaries to enforce a series of violations of the Clean Air Act at the nation's largest oil refinery and chemical plant complex, located in Baytown, Texas.

This is the groups' third federal lawsuit in three years targeting illegal air emissions in the Houston area arising from so-called “upset” events. It follows on the heels of ground-breaking settlements with Shell Oil Company, which paid a $5.8 million penalty and agreed to upgrade its Deer Park refinery and chemical plant, and Chevron Phillips Chemical Company, which has agreed to pay a $2 million penalty and upgrade its Cedar Bayou Chemical Plant once the settlement is approved by a federal judge.

In a statement issued 14 December, the groups said, “emissions from upsets at Exxon's Baytown complex exceed those in the Shell and Chevron Phillips cases combined: over eight million pounds of pollution in the past five years alone, including toxic chemicals such as benzene and 1,3-butadiene, and large releases of hydrogen chloride, a severe respiratory irritant.”

The lawsuit alleges that equipment breakdowns, malfunctions, and other non-routine incidents at the Baytown Complex since 2005 have resulted in the release of more than eight million pounds of pollutants into the surrounding air, frequently in violation of legal limits.

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Press release from Environment Texas