The consent decree resolves certain violations associated with: New Source Review (NSR) standards requiring facilities to apply best available technology (BACT) or lowest achievable emission reductions (LAER) when grandfathered units are expanded in a way that increases emissions; New source performance standards and other pollution control practices applicable to certain units, including the flaring of sulfur gases during process upsets; Leak detection and repair (LDAR) requirements governing fugitive emissions from process components including valves, pumps, flanges; Benzene emissions from wastewater treatment plants under the benzene waste National Emission Standard for Hazardous Air Pollutants (NESHAP); and, State-issued permits applicable to SO2 emissions from the Artesia fluidized catalytic cracking unit (FCCU). The agreement includes $200,000 in community-based supplemental environmental projects, as well as other environmentally beneficial projects estimated to cost more than $1.2 million. The agreement requires significant capital expenditures to install and operate technologies to control NOx and SO2 emissions at the FCCUs, which break crude oil down into major categories of refined product, and state-of-the-art burners at heaters and boilers, which fuel the refining process. The Companies also will invest in controls and operating practices
to minimize excess flaring.