Equistar Chemicals, LP; LyondellBasell Acetyls, LLC; and Lyondell Chemical Company Clean Air Act Settlement

(Washington, D.C. – October 15, 2021) -The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the Department of Justice announced a settlement with Equistar Chemicals, LP; LyondellBasell Acetyls, LLC; and Lyondell Chemical Company (“Lyondell”), that will eliminate thousands of tons of air pollution from six of Lyondell’s petrochemical manufacturing facilities in Texas and Iowa.

• Overview
• Violations
• Injunctive Relief
• Pollutant Impacts
• Health Effects and Environmental Benefits
• Civil Penalty
• Comment Period
• Contacts

Overview of Company

The three defendants in this matter are subsidiaries of LyondellBasell Industries N.V., a Dutch-domiciled multinational chemical company with American and British roots, incorporated in the Netherlands, with U.S. operations headquarters in Houston, Texas, and offices in London, UK. Worldwide, the company is the largest licensor of polyethylene and polypropylene technologies and the third largest independent chemical manufacturer. It also produces ethylene, propylene, polyolefins, and oxyfuels.

The settlement involves the reduction of air pollution from petrochemical and chemical flares. A flare is a mechanical device, ordinarily elevated high off the ground, used to combust waste gases.

Six facilities located in Channelview, Corpus Christi, and La Porte, Texas, as well as in Clinton, Iowa are covered in this settlement. The facilities subject to the settlement include two principal types of chemical plants: 

• Olefins Plants. The primary products of these plants are ethylene and propylene, both of which are olefins. Ethylene is a feedstock for the production of consumer plastic products such as garbage bags, bread wrappers, packaging, and wire insulation. Propylene is also a feedstock used to produce products such as carpet, upholstery, boats, and car parts. 
• Polymer Plants. The primary products of these plants are different grades of polyethylene, a polymer. Polyethylene is the feedstock for the production of consumer products such as food containers/packaging, carpet backing, diapers, pipe, truck bed liners, and shipping crates. Polyethylene is the most common plastic in the world.

Violations

The complaint alleges violations of Clean Air Act (CAA) requirements at Lyondell’s flares that resulted in excess emissions of pollutants, including volatile organic compounds (VOCs), various hazardous air pollutants (HAPs) including benzene, and climate-change-causing greenhouse gases. The allegations include violations of:

• New Source Review/Prevention of Significant Deterioration (NSR/PSD) and Minor New Source Review, 40 C.F.R. Parts 51 and 52
• New Source Performance Standards (NSPS), 40 C.F.R. Part 60, Subparts A and DDD.
• National Emission Standards for Hazardous Air Pollutants (NESHAP), 40 C.F.R. Part 61, Subparts A and FF.
• NESHAP, 40 C.F.R. Part 63, Subparts A, F, G, H, Y, SS, YY, and FFFF.
• Title V and the Title V permits at Lyondell’s facilities.
• Texas and Iowa State Implementation Plan (SIP) requirements.

Injunctive Relief

The consent decree requires the following actions to resolve the CAA claims:

• Submit and implement waste gas minimization plans which are detailed plans for reducing waste gas to flares. 
• Undertake a root cause analysis and implement corrective action for “reportable flaring incidents” (i.e., greater than 500,000 standard cubic feet per day waste gas flow above baseload flows).
• Install a new flare gas recovery system at the LaPorte facility and continue to operate an existing flare gas recovery system at the Channelview facility. These systems will recover and “recycle” the gases instead of sending them to be combusted in a flare and will allow Lyondell to reuse these gases as a fuel at its facilities or a product for sale. Each system will have a minimum capacity of 1.44 million standard cubic feet per day.
• Install and operate flare monitoring and control equipment to assure high combustion efficiency at all flares subject to the settlement.
• Operate fenceline monitoring stations to detect the presence of benzene from the covered plants.  Monitoring data will be made publicly available on the internet.

Pollutant Impacts

• Nitrogen Oxides – Nitrogen oxides can cause ground-level ozone, acid rain, particulate matter, global warming, water quality deterioration, and visual impairment. Nitrogen oxides play a major role, with volatile organic chemicals, in the atmospheric reactions that produce ozone.  Children, people with lung diseases such as asthma, and people who work or exercise outside are susceptible to adverse effects such as damage to lung tissue and reduction in lung function.
• Volatile Organic Compounds - VOCs, along with NOx, play a major role in the atmospheric reactions that produce ozone, which is the primary constituent of smog.  People with lung disease, children, older adults, and people who are active can be affected when ozone levels are unhealthy. Ground-level ozone exposure is linked to a variety of short-term health problems, including lung irritation and difficulty breathing, as well as long-term problems, such as permanent lung damage from repeated exposure, aggravated asthma, reduced lung capacity, and increased susceptibility to respiratory illnesses such as pneumonia and bronchitis.
• Benzene - Acute (short-term) inhalation exposure of humans to benzene may cause drowsiness, dizziness, headaches, as well as eye, skin, and respiratory tract irritation, and, at high levels, unconsciousness.  Chronic (long-term) inhalation exposure has caused various disorders in the blood, including reduced numbers of red blood cells and anemia in occupational settings.  Reproductive effects have been reported for women exposed by inhalation to high levels, and adverse effects on the developing fetus have been observed in animal tests.  Increased incidences of leukemia have been observed in humans occupationally exposed to benzene.  EPA has classified benzene as a Group A human carcinogen.
• Greenhouse Gasses – Greenhouse Gases trap heat in the atmosphere and contribute to climate change. This matter will result in the reduction of the following greenhouse gasses - carbon dioxide, ethane, and methane. The global warming potential of these gasses are normalized to the global warming potential of carbon dioxide. This metric is called carbon dioxide equivalent (CO2e).

Health Effects and Environmental Benefits

When fully implemented, the new controls and requirements under the consent decree are estimated to reduce emissions as follows:

• VOCs by 5,689 tons per year tpy
• Hazardous Air Pollutants by 480 tpy
• CO2e by 92,000 tpy

Civil Penalty

• Lyondell will pay a civil penalty of $3.4 million.

Comment Period

The proposed settlement, lodged in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Texas, is subject to a 30-day public comment period and final court approval. Information on submitting comment is available at the Department of Justice.

Contact Information

Robert Parrish 
Attorney
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (2242A) 
1200 Pennsylvania Ave., N.W. 
Washington, DC 20460-0001 
(202) 564-6946
[email protected]

Patrick W. Foley 
Senior Environmental Engineer 
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (2242A) 
1200 Pennsylvania Ave., N.W. 
Washington, DC 20460-0001 
(202) 564-7978 
[email protected]