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Marathon Ashland Petroleum (3165), Garyville

LDEQ Accident Report

Accident #137652
State Police #12-01298
Accident Date2012-03-05
Report Date 2012-03-09
Follow-up Date 2013-02-22
Follow-up: Yes

Pollutants Released

Pollutant Duration Point Source Greenhouse Gas Criteria Pollutant Ozone forming chemical Amount of Release
Sulfur Dioxide26mUnit 59 North FlareNOYESNO1,257.0 pounds
Highly Reactive Volatile Organic Compounds (HRVOCs)26mUnit 59 North FlareNONONO355.0 pounds

Accident Classified As: Reportable Quantity

Cause of Problem: Equipment Failure

The incident that occurred was a unit shutdown and associated flaring event. The wet gas compressor in the Fluidized Catalytic Cracking Unit tripped offline followed by an entire unit shutdown. The shutdown caused hydrocarbons to be routed to the north flare.

Discharge Preventable - No

States that an initial report was submitted on March 9, 2012, and claims to include details on this event and the pollutants released, though we do not have this document at this time.

Notes/Remedial Actions

RQs exceeded for SO2 and HRVOCs. Also, the opacity standard was exceeded for 8 minutes. Incident only lasted 26 minutes, but the depressuring of the unit continued and flaring lasted approximately 425 minutes. Remediations included cleaning the wet gas compressor motor aux contact and retest to verify appropriate resistance, and also revised compressor control system programming to include motor current to improve reliability of failed-to-start interlock logic.