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Placid Refining (2366), Port Allen

Releases of Naphthalene

LDEQ Accident Number
Accident Date		 Point Source(s) Notes Amount of Release
142779

2012-08-31		Tank No. 946
Cause: Due to excess rainfall associated with Hurricane Isaac on August 31, 2012, Placid diverted excess storm water from a permitted wastewater tank No. 940 to an unpermitted out of service clean open top tank No. 946. Approximately 4,200 barrels of water was transferred to prevent an overflow of tank No. 940 an/or tank No. 17, Placid's two permitted wastewater tanks. Placid's process units were in hot circulation mode and feed was removed from the process units due to the storm. The suction line used to transfer the water from tank No. 940 to tank No. 946 was located in the middle of the tank to minimize carryover of sludge or floating oil.

Followup: No

Notes: The water was transferred back from tank No, 946 to tank No. 940 on September 5, 2012. Movement of storm water into tank No. 946 was necessary to prevent a bypass condition in the Refinery waste water plant and to prevent potential adverse environmental impact and.or severe property damage. Placid's current LPDES permit provides for prohibition of bypass where feasible retention of untreated wastes is an alternative. Stormwater was diverted to a wastewater tank and therefore the pollutant becomes wastewater rather than stormwater. An attached document provides water emission calculations for Tank 946 and shows a total of 5.88 lbs/day daily emissions for total VOC released. No emissions were reportable quantity.		0.6 pounds
153201

2014-01-06		internal vapor combustor (source ID 1-91, EQT 0041)
Cause: Placid's internal vapor combustor (source ID 1-91, EQT 0041) was not operating upon an inspection conducted by an Environmental Engineer. The combustor was serviced upon notification. During the outage, only Placid's Tank Farm was routed to the combustor. Placid has no known reason why the combust or failed other than this was through a period of abnormally cold weather. VOC emission did occur as a result of this failure and the Benzene RQ was exceeded at 21lbs. Root cause was determined that operator error. Shut down alarm was not acknowledged.

Followup: No

Notes: 3,205.63 lbs of VOC were released. Placid's Engineering and Terminal Departments are currently reviewing adding alarms to the terminal control system. In one part of the report, Placid states that the root cause of the failure was operator error. However, later they cite that the accident was the result of mechanical failure.		0.7 pounds
153225

2014-01-06		Internal Vapor Combustor (source ID 1-91, EQT 0041)
Cause: During a review of trends on control equipment on 1/8/2014 it was noticed that Placid's internal vapor combustor (source ID 1-91, EQT 0041) was not operating. The combuster has the ability to control emissions from barge and/or truck loading from Placid's Tank Farm, however only Placid's Tank Farm was routed to the combustor during the outage. Placid has no known reason why the combustor failed other than abnormally cold weather. Placid has assessed the root cause as operator error as the shutdown alarm was not acknowledged.

Followup: No

Notes: Placid's engineering and terminal departments are currently reviewing adding alarms to the terminal control system. Report states that actual engineering calculations will be maintained by Placid and are available for review upon request. Additionally, this report was filed in conjunction with another incident of the same DEQ number and State Police number. The cases to not appear to be related and occurred at different times with different materials discharged. No State Police Report was included for either case. Second case with the same DEQ and LSP number is included in database with DEQ#1532250 to differentiate them.		0.7 pounds