MOSCOW (MRC) -- The owners of the troubled Limetree Bay refinery in St. Croix, U.S. Virgin Islands have agreed to resume sulfur dioxide monitoring, days after the U.S. EPA notified the company that it was in violation of the Clean Air Act, reported Reuters.
Reuters exclusively reported that the sulfur dioxide monitors near the refinery were not operating in March.
Recent incidents at the refinery released sulfur dioxide that prompted local school closures after students and staff reported feeling sick and forced some residents to shelter in their homes. Even short-term exposures to elevated levels of sulfur dioxide can harm the human respiratory system and make breathing difficult, according to the EPA.
The 200,000-barrel-per-day Caribbean refinery restarted operations this year after idling for about a decade. The restart was delayed several times due to problems with refinery equipment. Since the facility reopened, nearby St. Croix residents have complained of breathing problems and headaches.
Limetree Bay said last Wednesday it was reinstating the five sulfur dioxide air monitors near the facility voluntarily, adding that it is not required to operate them under existing permits.
Last Monday, the company rebuffed the EPA's notice of violation, arguing that the sulfur dioxide requirement only pertained to the refinery's previous owner, Hovensa, because the plant no longer burns sulfur-containing residual fuel oil.
The EPA disagreed with the company, noting that operating without sulfur dioxide monitors was in violation of the refinery's permits and other regulations. The EPA said on Monday that it is encouraged by Limetree Bay’s decision to re-establish the sulfur dioxide monitors and that it is exploring how it can support or augment monitoring in the interim.
Agency staffers arrived on the island in early May to conduct a joint investigation into the refinery incidents with the US Virgin Islands Department of Planning and Natural Resources.
As MRC wrote earlier, in late March 2021, EPA said it had revoked an expansion permit for the Limetree Bay oil refinery in the US Virgin Islands, citing concerns that the area around the facility is overburdened with pollution. The decision allowed the plant to keep operating but blocked ongoing expansion work pending an EPA review to assess measures the facility needs to take to protect nearby residents.
Ethylene and propylene are the main feedstocks for the production of polyethylene (PE) and polypropylene (PP), respectively.
According to MRC's ScanPlast report, Russia's estimated PE consumption totalled 576,270 tonnes in the first three month of 2021, up by 4% year on year. Low density polyethylene (LDPE) and high density polyethylene (HDPE) shipments increased. At the same time, PP shipments to the Russian market totalled 410,890 tonnes in January-March 2021, up by 56% year on year. Supply of homopolymer PP and PP block copolymers increased.
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