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Valero (1238), Meraux
Releases of Volatile Organic Compounds (VOCs)
| LDEQ Accident Number Accident Date |
Point Source(s) | Notes | Amount of Release |
| 82713 2005-10-01 | Tank 200-1 | Cause: Malfunction of the roof drain Followup: No Notes: The refinery is considering replacing the kickstand roof drains. | 122.0 pounds |
| 80857 2005-07-28 | Fugitive Emissions | Cause: Failed tubing to a pressure guage in the Distillate Hydrotreater Unit caused a fire Followup: No Notes: The report says hydrocarbons were released but does not say which one. | 125.0 pounds |
| 81136 2005-07-28 | Fugitive Emissions | Cause: Power interruption because of severe weather. Untreated waste water routed to #2 API Separator Followup: No Notes: They say it was unpreventable, as | 344.0 pounds |
| 89036 2006-07-03 | Tank 200-2 | Cause: Lightning strike at a seal on the external floating roof causing a small fire--small fire involving gas vapors in the Tank 200-2 Followup: Yes Notes: Serc Incident # 06-04168. Refinery quickly isolated the tank and contained the fire. Made plans to transfer the gasoline initiate inspection and repairs to the tanks | 54.0 pounds |
| 111018 2008-11-22 | South roof drain of Tank 300-2 | Cause: No Information Given - Leak Followup: No Information Provided Notes: This was a self report from Murphy to LDEQ regarding a crude oil leak to the ground north of Tank 300-2. the leak was contained inside the diked secondary containment. Steps were taken immediately to block in the roof drain. There was no visible oil on the roof. Murphy Oil recovered the free liquids with vacuum trucks. Soil with signs of visual contamination were scraped from the ground and will be disposed of at an offsite landfill. At the time of this report, Murphy was evaluating the incident toermine how best to repair the roof drain. | 500.0 pounds |
| 109415 2008-09-20 | Floor of Tank 55-7 | Cause: No Information Given - Leak Followup: No Information Provided Notes: This was a self report from Murphy to LDEQ regarding a gasoline leak to the ground from the floor of Tank 55-7. The leak was discovered at 0815 hours on 9/20/2008. Approximately 2 barrels were recovered by vacuum truck. The leak was contained inside thediked secondary containment. Steps were taken immediately to lower the roof legs in the floating roof of the tank and to transfer product from the tank so that it could be emptied. Water was pumped into the tank to displace the gasoline on the bottomgns of visual contamination has been removed for proper disposal. There was no impact to waterways. | 16.0 pounds |
| 08-BB013-3890 2008-02-26 | Tank 200-7 9EQT 0042, Source ID 200-7) | Cause: see notes Followup: No Information Provided Notes: This was a report from Murphy sent to the LDEQ. Murphy Oil is submitting this notification of an emissions exceedance in an amount greater than a reportable quantity according to Louisiana Air Emission Permit General Condition R of the Title V OperatingPermit No. 2500-00001-V2. On feb. 26, 2008, MOUSA determined that the No. 6 Oil stored in Tank 200-7 (EQT 0042, Source ID 200-7) at the Meraux Refinery had a Reid Vapor Pressure of approximately 2 psi from Feb. 26th through 29th. The emissions calcuons for Tank 200-7 and the River Dock Loading (EQT 0059, Source ID 5-88) based on this observation are included as an attachment to this notification. Based on the calculations attached, the RQ's of volatile organic compounds (not otherwise liste | |
| 102669 2008-01-29 | FLARE- instrument air dryer and plant air headers | Cause: The root cause was determined to be inadequate labeling and operator understanding of the instrument and plant air utilities system. Followup: No Information Provided Notes: This incident was listed as preventable because MOUSA did not maintain current labeling and P&IDs for the utilities section, and did not provide adequate training on the system. Remedial Measures - MOUSA will upgrade the labeling on pipes and valvesin the plant and instrument air utilities, update P&ID's for the air systems, install chain locks on critical valves, and provide operator training of the air systems. The report from Murphy states, MOUSA experienced automatic safety shutdowf several units following the loss of instrument air. As MOUSA attempted to restart units and restore balanced operations, the C3/C4 Splitter experienced a malfunction, resulting in a large flame with smoke emissions at the North Flare. MOUSA had sta | 308.0 pounds |
| 102011 2008-01-02 | FLARE - Main Airblower at the #2 FCC, C3/C4 Splitter/ FCCU Fractionator | Cause: the refinery experienced an automatic safety shutdown of the Main Air Blower at the #2 FCC, resulting in the release of FCC catalyst from the #2 FCC ESP stack (EPN #2-77). As MOUSA attempted to start the unit and achieve balanced operations in the refinery, the C3/C4 Splitter experienced a malfunction, resulting in a large flame with smoke emissions at the North Flare. The events may have been related and are under investigation. (Maybe an air pocket got into the system and caused this -see #102043) Followup: Yes Notes: This incident report includes two citizen complaints and a self report from Murphy to the LDEQ. Incident #102043, 102007, 102011, and 102050 are all regarding the same incident as best I can tell. In Murphy's report, they acknowledged that the eventresulted in significant flaring from the FCC main column overhead receiver and the C3/C4 Splitter. Also, MOUSA claims that they received three complaints of visible emissions but no allegations of impact. The LDEQ report states that some particulateter was released to the neighborhood and that at the time of the incident there was a north/northwest wind. NOTE- at the time of this report the incident was under investigation. However, no follow-up report was provided to the Bucket Brigade. | 576.0 pounds |
| 120104 2009-12-14 | Gasoline Tank 200-1 | Cause: After heavy rainfall, personnel found gasoline accumulated on the external floating roof of Gasoline Tank 200-1. Root cause is under investigation. Followup: No Notes: RQ exceeded. Tanks was isolated and a fire fighting foam was applied to prevent ignition. The discharge was removed from the tank. | 31,274.0 pounds |
| 121335 2010-02-06 | Tank 55-7 | Cause: Crude oil spilled from underground transfer line. Unclear/unknown how long spill lasted before discovery. Followup: No Notes: RQ. Reportable quantities were exceeded for crude oil. Line flushed with water and permanently removed from service; free liquids vacuumed, visibly contaminated soil removed. | 8.0 gallons |
| 120583 2010-01-06 | Tank 250-1 | Cause: HEAVY RAIN. Crude oil spill from contractor equipment employed to clean tank. Multiple problems intersecting: liquid level in skimming tank rose too high and flowed out of inspection window that had been left open. Level setting of tank set too high, tank no longer level due to a month of heavy rains so sensor was out of position, containment pan compromised by pipe lying across it, tank system left unattended. SECONDARY CAUSE: Human Error. Followup: No Notes: Contractor will monitor skimming tank & containment more closely, provide refresher training for water wash operations. | 5.8 gallons |
| 138647 2012-04-10 | North Flare & South Flare North Flare, South Flare, #2 SRU Incinerator, #3 SRU Incinerator | Cause: The root cause of the event was found to be equipment failure at the Entergy substation adjacent to the refinery. Due to a total power interruption at the refinery, units underwent safety shutdowns, which included venting high rates of gases to the North Flare and the South Flare. There were periods of excess opacity at both flares, as there was no controlling steam available. The boilers were also affected by the power outage. As startups proceeded, the refinery experienced some noise from relief valves and some additional sulfur dioxide emissions at the North Flare.
Entergy reported that the power interruption was caused by a severe electrical fault at a 13.8 kV tie breaker at the Meraux Substation. Entergy found no evidence to support a definitive root cause. There was some evidence of bird nesting in the immediate area of the fault. Followup: Yes Notes: The refinery shut down all units, per written procedures. Once power was restored to the refiner, the refinery assessed and methodically restarted each unit. The refinery received one citizen complaint for odor during this event. | |
| 152227 2013-11-08 | Gasoline Storage Tank (200-1) Vacuum Breakers | Cause: Citizen complaint filed on 11/8/2013 reporting a foul odor causing headaches.
The Liquid level the the external floating roof gasoline storage tank (Tank 200-1) was lowered to a point where the vacuum breakers on the roof started to open. These vacuum breakers are designed to protect the tank when the floating roof is landed onto its legs. With the vacuum breakers open, VOC emmissions from 200-1 would increase above their normal baseline.
The level in the tank was lowered, which caused the system to act in such a was as to prevent back flow from the tank into the system (the vacuum breakers opening), however, we are unsure as to how the liquid levels go to be low enough to cause this to happen. Followup: Yes Notes: Once this condition was discovered, the liquid level in the tank was increased until the vacuum breakers closed. This opening was logged as a Title V permit deviation, and is to be reported in the next semi-annual Title V deviation report. | |
| 150026 2013-07-30 | Pressure safety valve in Hydrocracker Unit | Cause: On 7/30/2013, SPOC received a citizen complaint of black smoke released due to flaring from Valero-Meraux. The environmental manager stated that flaring had occurred at the time of the complaint. The flaring (north flare) was a result of a mixture of primarily hydrogen and some VOC's released by a pressure safety valve on the hydrocracker unit. The flaring continued for 16 hours when processes were stabilized at the ROSE unit. Followup: No Notes: LDEQ took no further action |
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