Texas environmental regulators accuse BP of poor operation and maintenance at refinery

Texas accuses BP of poorly operating its refinery

HOUSTON — A BP Texas City refinery that was the site of a massive 2005 explosion that killed 15 workers has a pattern of poor operation and maintenance practices, Texas environmental regulators reported after investigating a 46-day release of toxic and cancer-causing chemicals from the plant this spring.

The Texas Commission on Environmental Quality handed its findings over to the state’s attorney general because BP’s violations are “egregious,” the company has a poor compliance history and the courts have the power to hand down greater monetary fines, said John Sadlier, deputy director of TCEQ’s Office of Compliance and Enforcement.

The report comes as BP nears a final fix for its massive Gulf of Mexico oil spill.

The commission found the toxic release at the Texas City facility, the nation’s third-largest refinery, began April 6, days before the Deepwater Horizon blew up, and ended May 22 — more than a month after the company was saddled with cleaning up with the largest oil spill in U.S. history.

The company denies elevated emissions readings during the April-May incident and “does not believe there is basis to pay claims in connection with this event,” Scott Dean, a BP spokesman said in an e-mail.

The British-based company has a host of other problems to deal with:

—A lawsuit filed Tuesday seeks $10 billion in damages for people who breathed in the toxic chemicals during the recent Texas City release.

—There’s an $87 million fine pending from the federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration, which found a litany of problems and hit the company with the unprecedented penalty.

—Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott is looking into more than 60 other air quality violations at the Texas City facility, dating back to March 2005. The company could be fined up to $25,000 per day, per violation.

“BP seems to have significant issues as it relates to unauthorized emissions events,” Sadlier said. “BP has such a poor compliance history. That continues today.”

Dean did not directly respond to questions about the TCEQ investigation, but said BP has “made major investments in our people, our plant and our processes to modernize the Texas City refinery, and we have an ongoing program of continuous improvement to further enhance plant safety.”

He did say of the lawsuit: “BP is not taking or paying such claims.”

Sadlier said that while there were no short-term health risks associated with this release, the long-term impact of constant elevated exposure to cancer-causing benzene and a variety of other toxic chemicals is unknown.

The Texas City release occurred because of a failure in the refinery’s ultracracker unit, which helps convert petroleum products similar to diesel fuel into high-octane gasoline. Five other problems were reported in the same unit during the past year, TCEQ reported. The most recent problem was discovered when an operator noticed erratic gas flows in a compressor’s high pressure case, the commission wrote in its report. The unit was shutdown.

The cause of the event was apparently an iron sulfide buildup around a seal, a problem BP’s own people said could be solved by periodically cleaning the pipes, the commission wrote, adding that “there was no indication that BP … had cleaned the seal piping prior to the event.”

In addition, BP told the commission it had scheduled a repair for the compressor, but it was delayed. Emissions violations accounted for nearly 15 percent of the unit’s operating hours during the past year.

“Based on a review of the incidents that occurred during the past year, there appears to be a pattern of poor operation and maintenance practices,” the TCEQ investigation concluded.

Tony Buzbee, the attorney who filed the lawsuit against BP on Tuesday, said evidence he uncovered in past trials found the oil giant was averaging 400 releases a year, 200 leaks and one fire a week in Texas City. In the most recent incident, more than 500,000 pounds of various chemicals, including more than 17,370 pounds of cancer-causing benzene, were released into the air over six weeks.

“The toxic soup is really the issue,” Buzbee said. “Various chemicals that taken together can really, really ruin your day. And that’s kind of an understatement.”