Companies pin 2017’s pollution on Harvey

Report shows spike in unauthorized emissions at plants

Houston-area companies reported releasing significantly more pollutants in 2017 that the previous years, according to an analysis by an environmental group, but the top polluters blamed those releases on Hurricane Harvey, one-time breakdowns at plants and maintenance activities.

The analysis by Environment Texas, based on reports filed by companies to state regulator, found that the Houston metro area, home to several refineries and petrochemical plants, had the second most unauthorized releases of pollutants in the state. In 2017, 275 companies reported more than 4,000 emissions events that resulted in the release of more than 63 million pounds of air pollution in the state, up 27 percent from 2016, according to an Environment Texas report.

As a comparison, the average American family emits 411 pounds of sulfur dioxide each year, according to the Leonardo Academy, a nonprofit that quantifies the environmental impact of pollution.

Companies that operate industrial plants can obtain permits to regularly emit pollution at certain levels. When plants exceed permitted levels, companies are required to report the incidents to state regulators with information that includes how much pollution was emitted and the duration of the incident.

Environment Texas used those reports to detail the number the

number of unauthorized pollution incidents in 2017. The group has conducted the annual assessment since 2015.

Companies file emissions event reports each time a plant has an unauthorized release of pollutants due to a malfunction or planned activity, such as equipment maintenance. If the plant claims and proves that the excess emissions were not preventable, among other criteria, then no fine is imposed.

Heavy rains and flooding overwhelmed plants, collapsed roofs on storage tanks and shut down operations at refineries and other facilities. Both Exxon Mobil and Magellan Midstream Partners mentioned the hurricane as a key contributor to the high emissions from their plants produced in 2017.

Emissions ‘preventable’

But Luke Metzger, executive director of Environment Texas, said he was skeptical of their claims. He pointed to several Corpus Christi plants, which shut down operations several days prior to the hurricane making landfall.

“Certainly there were increases in emissions for some facilities during the hurricane, but we think many, if not most were preventable,” Metzger said. “These (events) are preventable if companies take the time, spend the money and train their workers to control emissions.”

The hurricane may have contributed to 8.3 million pounds of air pollution released by industrial plants immediately before, during and after the storm, as a result of waiting too long to shut down, according to a separate report by the Environmental Integrity Project, an advocacy group in Washington.

Few penalized

Other companies said that the high levels of emissions during 2017 were due to scheduled, onetime work and other singular events. Metzger, however, said the data shows that many of those one-time events occur over and over again.

The Environment Texas report questioned how effective the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality's regulatory process is, showing that enforcement has decreased as a percent of emissions events since 2011. Of the more than 4,000 reported unauthorized emissions events reported in the state in 2017, only 58 resulted in penalties imposed by TCEQ, data shows.

TCEQ declined to comment on the report specifically, but Brian McGovern, the agency spokesman, said the commission" vigorously defends its enforcement process.