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Louisiana Refinery Accident Database

Valero (26003), Norco

LDEQ Accident Report

Pollutants Released

Accident Classified As: No Information Given

Cause of Problem: Piping or Tubing

On 11/1/11 Valero discovered that the suction line to tank 130-8 had developed a leak and had spilled approximately 20 bbls of vacuum gas oil (VGO) to the tank containment dike. A vacuum truck was used to recover pooled fluids, and the damaged section of line was repaired. Tank 130-8

Discharge Preventable - Yes

Valero believes that this incident was reasonably preventable.

Notes/Remedial Actions

Valero contained the spilled VGO within the tank dike and collected it with vacuum trucks. They verified that the dike drain valves were closed and immediately shutdown the transfer at the tank. They mobilized the onsite vacuum trucks to remove emulsified oil and water from he dike containment area of tank 130-8. A third party OSRO was mobilized to assist in the final cleanup. Also, approximately 86 tons of recovered waste was characterized and disposed of at a non-hazardous landfill. All VGO that was pumpable was collected and returned to the refining process. They developed the corrective following actions to prevent recurrence: (1) Inspect all tanks and piping in the tank farms to confirm no additional expansion joints of this type are in service. (2) Establish an inspection schedule for all hose and expansion joints in the tank farm, Batture, and loading locks. (3) Establish a schedule to replace hoses with engineered metallic expansion joints in the tank farms, batture, and docks.