LA Bucket Brigade : Refinery Accident Database

About the Database

Motiva Enterprises (2719), Convent

Releases of Benzene

LDEQ Accident Number Accident Date	Point Source(s)	Notes	Amount of Release
91552 2006-10-22	Tank 20D-12	Cause: Floating roof on Tank 20D-12 partially collapsed into the hydrocarbon product during heavy rains, releasing product to ground via the roof drain and into air via evaporation. Exceeded RQs. No LDEQ report in this file--hazmat and two letters. Followup: Yes Notes: discontinued product transfers to and from tank and began preparations to remove product from the floating roof and the tank.	855.3 pounds
102700 2008-01-29	001 Outfall	Cause: a main wastewater line ruptures following a repair on a small line Followup: Yes Notes: Massive process water release (872,000 gallons). Motiva submits lengthy incident report (~50 pp.) a	9.0 pounds
150872 2013-09-07	Catalytic Reforming Unit	Cause: A leak on a warm up line to a discharge check valve that released naptha, a gasoline component, directly onto the unit slab. Followup: No Notes: The incident was initially reported as a potential exceedance of the 10 pound reportable quantity for benzene. However, after further calculation, the total benzene emissions from this incident were not able reportable quantity.
150490 2013-08-19	pump 4G-559	Cause: On August 19, 2013, a fire was experienced on pump 4G-559 due to a seal failure. HTU-1's recycle compressor tripped on high K.O. drum level. A decision was made to slowdown, stabilize, and shutdown. Part of the activities to slowdown included putting the CRU unit on hydrogen circulation; therefore, operations shutdown the CRU charge pumps, 4G-501/559. Shortly after the pumps were stopped, 4G-559 failed, and a seal fire occurred. After thorough investigation, the cause of the seal fire was determined to be the failure of a check valve on the discharge of 4G-559. When the charge pumps were stopped, the downstream hydrogen pushed the naptha in the line backwards through the discharge line. the check valve in the discharge line did not operate as designed and the naptha and hydrogen entered 4G-559 causing it to spin in reverse. This caused friction, heat, and vibration significant enough for the pump to seize. Under these conditions, a seal fire is expected. Followup: Yes Notes: The units were brought down in order to stabilize the situation. The materials involved in the fire were largely combusted, as were the materials routed to the flare; they were then dispersed naturally into the air. All residual unburned materials from the pump seal fire were captured by the unit secondary containment system and recycled back into the refinery's recovered oil system. A second check valve has been installed on the discharge line to provide an additional factor of safety against the potential failure of a single check valve.	185.8 pounds
149560 2013-07-10	wastewater sewer trench	Cause: On July 10, a release was reported at the Fluidized Catalytic Cracking Unit. The event was caused by a partially opened pump bleeder valve that released Heavy Straight Run (HSR), a gasoline component, directly into a process wastewater sewer drain. The drain overflowed and HSR pooled in an open sewer trench and was subject to evaporation losses to the air. Followup: No Notes: No remedial actions given. Incident initially reported as potential exceedance of 10 pound RQ for benzene. After further calculation, the total benzene emissions were not above RQ.