LA Bucket Brigade : Refinery Accident Database

About the Database

CITGO Petroleum (1250), Lake Charles

Releases of Toluene

LDEQ Accident Number Accident Date	Point Source(s)	Notes	Amount of Release
80796 2005-07-26	B-9 Flare	Cause: light ends over-pressurizing in Sulfolane Unit Followup: No Notes: Claims emission was below RQ
88679 2006-06-19	B-12 flare, wastewater treatment plant	Cause: Refinery experienced a heavy rainfall event, greater than 8 inches;of rain in 36 hours. 250 psig steam lines became submerged in water and as a result the steam condensed and caused a drop in pressure, eventually stopping the flow of rich amine throughthe Central Amine unit. This resulted in the loss of acid gas production. The SROs eventually shutdown due to lack of feed. Off gas went to the B-12 flare. Rainfall runoff exceeded the available capacity of the wastewater treatment system storm water tanks and the treatment system. When the capacity of the storm water tanks was exceeded, slop oil and wastewater overflowed from the tanks into the protective dike area surrounding the tanks allowing evaporation of benzene, etc. Followup: Yes Notes: The lack of amine treatment of refinery fuel gas caused the hydrogen sulfide content in fuel gas to exceed permit limits Hydrogen Sulfide amounts exceeded not reportedÉTo increase the pressure of the steam system and to reuce hydrogen sulfide generation, emergency steam and hydrogen sulfide shedding steps were initiated. Several units feed rates were reduced to minimum and some were shut down. As soon as acid gas was available steps were taken to restart the SRUs. For each restart operations pnnel followed standard operations procedures for startup and shutdown. When the storm water tanks began to overflow, steps were taken to remove slop oil from the tank dike using vacuum dikes. The feed rte of wastewater from the wastewater tanks to	51,003.0 pounds
101823 2007-12-19	Cooling Tower 4	Cause: ruptured tube suspected as source of leak Followup: No Notes: Hydrocarbon leak in the c-711 Stabilizer Trim Condenser at the Isomerization Unit is cause of emissions.
94479 2007-03-09	JP244B pump B-9 Flare	Cause: JP244 B pump seal leaked to the flare drum Followup: No Notes:
93338 2007-01-17	Cooling Tower #4 3(MISC)CT4 [EQT336]	Cause: JP244A Feed Splitter Bottoms pump in the Sulfolane Unit. Primary pump seal failed and hydrocarbon began to leak into the barrier fluid and the seal pot cooler. Hydrocarbon began to leak into the cooling water through the cooling cOil. Followup: No Notes: Hydrocarbon leak on cooling tower #4 was discovered 12/21/2006 but the department was not notified of the leak until 01/17/2007. According to Mr. Driver the leak tracking form was not initiated because on 12/21/2006 because the reportable quantity had not been reached at that time. Pump JP244A was repaired on 03/12/2007. CITGO has initiated a failure analysis review to determine how this incident occurred, and what controls need to be implemented to prevent a recurrence. Despite early detectio leak on 12/21/2006, Citgo claims leak was not preventable because CITGO had no indicaton that this pump had a problem."	2,450.0 pounds
104698 2008-04-11	K-16 Area	Cause: see notes Followup: Yes Notes: Reformate was released into a pit due to a faulty dresser coupling. The bolts in the coupling released. Dresser coupling replaced with hard piping.	12,631.0 pounds
136963 2012-02-03	K-19 line leak	Cause: K-19 line leak. A dresser coupling failed and leaked 1 barrel of finished gasoline. Coupler between piping for a barrel. This is a seal between piping and vessel. Followup: No Notes: The materials were contained in a concrete area. The line was isolates, foam was added, and the line was repaired. Planning to replace it with a hard line. The RQs for Flammable Gas and VOCs were exceeded.	37.0 pounds
152225 2013-11-07	Furnace Tube	Cause: A fire occurred on the A-Reformer combination furnace during startup. Preliminary indication is that a furnace tube, located in the convective section, developed a leak which resulted in a fire. Followup: No Notes:	87.5 pounds
151352 2013-09-21	Wastewater treatment unit	Cause: This incident involved a Benzene release associated with wastewater diversion CITGO's wastewater treatment plant. This wastewater diversion occurred as a result of a flash flood heavy rain event. CITGO diverted the wastewater into a concrete diked containment area surrounding the wastewater tanks. According to CITGO, the wastewater diversion was necessary to avoid overfilling of stormwater and equalization tanks. One of the WWTP Equalization Tanks (TK 310) had been out of service for inspection/maintenance going into the subject rainfall event. Followup: No Notes: Wastewater processing rates were maximized and material diverted to diked area was pumped to controlled storage as tankage became available. CITGO will be constructing a fourth wastewater storage tank as well as an additional API separator and aeration tank.	86.0 pounds