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

A dozen US oil refineries last year exceeded the federal restrict on average benzene emissions.

Among the 12 refineries that emitted above the maximum level for benzene, 5 were in Texas, four in Louisiana, and one each in Pennsylvania, Indiana and the US Virgin Islands, a new analysis by the Environmental Integrity Challenge revealed on Thursday.

Benzene is a known carcinogen that is highly poisonous and volatile when uncovered to air. A lot of the surplus emissions come by way of leaks from valves, tanks, pumps and other means that are laborious to detect.

The Environmental Protection Company estimates 6.1 million individuals in the US live inside three miles of a refinery, with low-income folks and other people of colour represented at rates practically twice that of the overall inhabitants.

Out of 129 operable oil refineries in 2021, 118 reported benzene focus registered at or near the positioning, in any other case often known as the fence-line.

Nearly half of those refineries launched benzene levels above 3 micrograms per cubic meter, which the Environmental Integrity Challenge defines as a long-term potential health threat.

The EPA requires amenities to take action if they exceed an average 9 micrograms per cubic meter, or above “action level” emission of benzene.

“If [facilities] can’t get their benzene under the action stage, yr after yr, we really have to see enforcement from the EPA,” said Eric Schaeffer, the executive director of the Environmental Integrity Undertaking, in a press convention. “It's essential to begin paying penalties when your fence-line levels persist,” he added.

Lifetime exposure to benzene at ranges as little as 0.13 microgram per cubic meter might cause a danger of as much as one additional cancer case for every a million exposed, in keeping with the EPA. The upper the extent of benzene, the upper the health danger.

Marathon Petroleum’s Galveston Bay refinery in Texas City had the very best average web benzene ranges in 2021, in accordance with the evaluation of the self-reported information. Roughly 37,000 individuals stay within a three-mile radius of the refinery. Amongst them, 62% are people of coloration and 47% are low-income.

“This evaluation provides necessary perception into why the Houston space is an industrial cancer hotspot,” said Leticia Gutierrez of advocacy group Air Alliance Houston, on the press conference.

“Folks residing close to these services have higher [exposure] to lifetime most cancers danger than another a part of the state, yet the regulatory businesses chargeable for defending us continue to approve permits for these facilities,” Gutierrez mentioned.

Environmental Integrity Undertaking notes that its analysis did not measure concentrations of benzene inside neighborhoods adjacent to refineries, and doesn't reflect the actual ranges of benzene within the communities.

Marathon Petroleum and the EPA did not immediately respond to a request for comment.