LA Bucket Brigade : Refinery Accident Database

About the Database

Marathon Ashland Petroleum (3165), Garyville

Causal Factor: Weather

LDEQ Accident Number Accident Date	Point Source(s)	Notes	Amount of Release
81804 2005-08-31	no information given	Cause: Hurricane Katrina Followup: No Notes: Plant shutdown in preparation for the hurricane. LDEQ determined that no releases or pollution had occurred.
120638 2010-01-09	FLARE: south flare	Cause: COLD WEATHER. "Freeze-related issue": eocene interstage drum filled with liquid due to a frozen drain line, tripped compressors, relief valve on the crude vacuum overhead opened to flare. Emissions table in report dark and hard to read. Followup: No Notes: Air monitoring team dispatched, crude vacuum gas to flare closed off and re-routed, bypass valve opened but did not drop level in time, steam hose hooked up to the controller to clear line. Refinery Letter states that reportable quantities were not exceeded [BRQ]. Detailed emissions report included.	Highly Reactive Volatile Organic Compounds (HRVOCs): 3.0 pounds Sulfur Dioxide: 138.6 pounds Nitrogen Oxide: 489.2 pounds Volatile Organic Compounds (VOCs): 31.7 pounds Carbon Monoxide: 411.4 pounds Particulate Matter 10: 37.4 pounds
No LDEQ Reported 2012-08-29	oil spill response boat (LA 1409 FG - The Big Tuna)	Cause: Marathon's oil spill response boat (LA 1409 FG - The Big Tuna), located at Dock 1, was found to be submerged on August 29, 2012 during Hurricane Isaac. This is likely due to the eight-foot surge that occurred on the Mississippi River during the hurricane. The boat was removed from the river on August 30, 2012 - at that time it was noted that approximately 10 gallons of gasoline had been lost from the fuel tank while the boat was submerged in the river. Followup: No Notes: As soon as conditions allowed, the boat was removed from the Mississippi River. The facility claims this release exceeds Reportable Quantities for oil. This is actually below Louisiana DEQ reportable quantities, but there is an inconsistency in facility's notion of RQ for oil and the actual state of Louisiana (LDEQ) RQs. There is no LDEQ incident # for this event, although this is linked to National Response Center NRC incident # 102-2780.	Gasoline: 10.0 gallons
142430-142532 2012-08-28	flare outfall 002	Cause: There were multiple units that experienced upsets during the shutdown and startup activities surrounding Hurricane Isaac: In preparation for Hurricane Isaac, the refinery units were at minimum rates anticipating a shutdown condition. As a result of these abnormal conditions, the refinery 150 PSIG steam header pressure was significantly low. The U205 Delayed Coker unit uses steam to purge resid and coke from the switch valve and ball valves on the coke drum structure. the low steam pressure ultimately led to the valve failing due to coke build up on the valve. On 8/28/2012 the unit was forced to go on bypass and internal circulation due to inability to switch feed to the offline drum. After the unit was on bypass the Wet Gas Compressor tripped three times. These trips resulted in releases to the flare. This resulted in a small amount of hydrocarbon material to be routed to the ground flare. Propane Flaring: Due to atypical operating conditions and the shutdown of our third-party propane pipeline, MPC flared propane starting on August 31 at 06:52 AM intermittently until September 1 at 02:45 AM. The flaring of propane was required to balance refinery operations. No reportable quantities were exceeded. The release calculations are provided in Attachment 4. North Stick Flare Flame Outage: On September 1, the North Stick Flare flame was snuffed out with steam for a total of five minutes. This occurred while decreasing the amount of propane flaring mentioned above. No reportable quantities were exceeded. This event was reported verbally on September 1st and a follow-up written report was submitted on September 7, 2012 (see Attachment 5). North Stick Flare Damage: The North Stick Flare was observed to have some abnormal flame patterns prior to Hurricane Isaac. However, during the hurricane it was noticed that one side of the flare tip had more significant flames. After the hurricane on September 11 th an inspection, via a remote helicopter, observed that a natural gas supply line to the pilots had a broken union. This was causing natural gas to burn just below the flare tip. It is believed that the high winds experienced during the hurricane caused the union to completely break apart. A repair plan is being formulated to correct this issue. Wastewater Discharge: MPC discharged untreated process area stormwater via Outfall 002 to the Lake Maurepas drainage system beginning on August 30, 2012 at 07:00 hrs intermittently until September 3, 2012 at 13:00 hrs. The amount of wastewater discharged is estimated to be 300,000 bbls (which is 12,600,000 gallons). Samples were collected prior to the discharge and after the start of discharge to verify that the water being discharged was sufficient quality to ensure no harm to environment. The discharge was monitored to ensure that there was no sheen on the water discharged off-site. It should be noted that prior to discharging the untreated process area stormwater, MPC had reached the on-site WWTP storage capacity of 619,995 bbls of water. In addition, MPC placed an out of service crude oil tank (500-2) back into service prior to the hurricane specifically to be used for wastewater and slop oil storage as needed. This tank was used for excess water storage prior to any wastewater being discharged off-site. Followup: No Notes: This report is linked to two LDEQ incident numbers: 142430 and 142532. Unit 205 Coker sent to the North Ground Flare. The release was identified at approximately 06:35 hours on August 29. 2012 and lasted for approximately 1944 minutes (1d 8h 24m). The compound of concern was Propylene. Totals of 76.54 lbs and 86.15 lbs were released during the 2 24-hour periods involved. MPC considers these emissions to be covered under the temporary variance issued on August 27 of 2012. That variance authorized the temporary permit for the emissions: Sulfur Dioxide 13.3 tons; Nitrogen Oxide 0.9 tons; Carbon Monoxide 7.03 tons; Volatile Organic Compounds (VOCs) 8.51 tons; Hydrogen Sulfide 0.73 tons. There was also a variance for 3,750 long tons(8,400,000lbs) of sulfur to be stored on a "sulfur pad". These variances were considered the maximum allowed during that period, therefore they are not included in LABB pollutant totals in this report. As soon as conditions allowed, the compressor was restarted. Missed Monitoring/Repair/Inspections Due to the hurricane, personnel were not available to complete several regulatory required tasks, such as weekly inspections, PMs, monitoring, and repairs. The programs and the specific missed requirements are listed below: LDAR Program 5-day first attempt at repair requirement (five components) 15-day final repair requirement (twelve components) Waste Program Weekly satellite collection area inspection (two locations) Weekly hazardous waste storage area inspection Weekly non-hazardous waste storage area inspection Weekly universal waste area inspection Weekly used oil storage area inspection Stormwater Pollution Prevention Program Weekly refinery inspection Spill Prevention Control & Countermeasures Program Weekly inspection of the Contractor Village area MACT II - NSPS Subpart UUU Weekly PM for the pH meter used for compliance demonstration Benzene Waste Operation NESHAP Carbon Canister monitoring for breakthrough (eight events) 15-day repair requirement (four sumps) There is a separate report on this database for the sinking of the "Big Tuna" response boat. Response Boat Fuel Loss: The oil spill response boat became submerged in the Mississippi River on August 29th, due to a surge in the river level which resulted in the loss of ten gallons of gasoline. The reportable quantity for oil was exceeded. This event was reported verbally on August 31 and a written follow-up report was submitted on September 7, 2012 (See Attachment 3). (Attachment 3 was deleted from this file, and added to the report for this event)	Highly Reactive Volatile Organic Compounds: 193.9 pounds Pentene Plus: 81.6 pounds Particulate Matter 2.5: 80.9 pounds Particulate Matter 10: 80.9 pounds Volatile Organic Compounds (VOCs): 6,842.7 pounds Carbon Monoxide: 4,016.4 pounds NOx: 738.0 pounds Process Wastewater: 12,600,000.0 gallons Methane: 159.3 pounds Ethane: 92.9 pounds Ethylene: 18.5 pounds Propane: 5,666.7 pounds Propylene: 175.4 pounds n-Butane: 81.0 pounds Isobutane: 169.3 pounds 1-Butene: 119.2 pounds T-butene2: 72.6 pounds cis-2-Butene: 54.9 pounds Pentane: 368.6 pounds 1,3-Butadiene: 1.8 pounds Hydrogen: 132.4 pounds Carbon Dioxide: 10,851.8 pounds Nitrogen: 36.0 pounds Nitrous Oxide: 14.3 pounds
156224 2014-05-28	None Reported	Cause: Severe weather impacted the refinery, causing damage to the cooling water system and resulting in controlled shutdown of multiple refinery process units. Th emissions were related to unit shutdown activities. In addition, refinery fuel gas normally sent offsite was routed to the south flare due to a shutdown of the offsite facility compressors. No permit limits were exceeded during the event. There were no known offsite impacts. Followup: No Notes: None. Units were shut down and secured per operating procedure. No information included about the nature of the chemical compounds that were released during this event.