2024 Lima Refining Clean Air Act Benzene Waste NESHAP and Volatile Organic Compounds Wastewater Settlement Agreement Summary

On September 27, 2024, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the Department of Justice (DOJ) announced a settlement agreement with the Lima Refining Company (LRC) resolving alleged Clean Air Act violations for excess emissions from wastewater of benzene and other volatile organic compounds from its refinery in Lima, Ohio. The Lima Refinery is surrounded by communities that have been historically marginalized and disproportionately exposed to pollution. This settlement is part of EPA’s and DOJ’s ongoing focus on assisting communities and addressing environmental justice concerns.

Under the settlement, LRC will pay a civil penalty of $19 million and is required to reduce benzene and volatile organic compound (VOC) emissions by addressing its previous noncompliance and implementing compliance monitoring and training at Lima Refinery. The company will implement capital projects with an estimated value of $150 million to ensure it complies with the settlement requirements.

On this page:

Overview of the Lima Refining Company
Summary of the Violations
Overview of Health Effects and Environmental Benefits
Summary of Consent Decree
Comment Period
Contact Information

Overview of Lima Refining Company

The Lima Refinery in Lima, Ohio processes about 165,000 barrels per day of crude, as well as low-sulfur gasoline, gasoline blend stocks, ultra-low sulfur diesel, jet fuel, petrochemical feedstock and other byproducts. Refined products are transported via pipelines and rail cars to primary markets in Ohio, Illinois, Indiana, Pennsylvania, and southern Michigan. 

LRC is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Canadian-based Cenovus Energy Inc., which currently owns and operates two other petroleum refineries in Ohio and Wisconsin, and has a stake in two additional refineries in Illinois and Texas.

Summary of the Violations

The complaint alleges that LRC violated the Clean Air Act, specifically, the:

National Emission Standards for Hazardous Air Pollutants (NESHAP) for Benzene Waste Operations (BWON), which requires certain facilities to control emissions from benzene-containing waste, and

New Source Performance Standards (NSPS) for VOC Emissions from Petroleum Refinery Wastewater Systems (QQQ), which requires VOC emissions to be controlled from certain individual drain systems and oil-water separators at refineries.

Among other things, the EPA alleged that LRC failed to comply with the BWON requirements for control and treatment of waste management units and ensure that its units were designed to operate with the no detectable emissions (NDE) standard. In addition, LRC failed to properly operate and inspect individual drain systems, as required by QQQ.

The EPA also alleged violations of the NESHAP and NSPS general requirement to use good air pollution control practices and associated requirements in the Lima Refinery’s CAA Title V operating permit.

Overview of Environmental Impacts

LRC’s violations resulted in excess emissions of benzene, VOCs, and hazardous air pollutants (HAPs).

The health threats from the inhalation of benzene can have short- and long-term impacts:

Acute, or short-term inhalation exposure may cause drowsiness, dizziness, headaches, as well as eye, skin, and respiratory tract irritation, and, at high levels, unconsciousness.

Chronic, or long-term inhalation exposure has caused various disorders in the blood, including reduced numbers of red blood cells and anemia in occupational settings. Reproductive effects have been reported for women exposed to high levels, and adverse effects on the developing fetus have been observed in animal tests. Increased incidences of leukemia have been observed in people occupationally exposed to benzene. EPA has classified benzene as a Group A human carcinogen.

VOCs are a key component in the formation of ground-level ozone, a pollutant that irritates the lungs, exacerbates diseases such as asthma, and can increase susceptibility to respiratory illnesses, such as pneumonia and bronchitis.

Emissions from other hazardous air pollutants increase the chance of known or suspected health effects, such as cancer and reproductive or birth defects, as well as adverse environmental effects.

Summary of Consent Decree

Under the consent decree, LRC will pay a penalty of $19 million. Additionally, the consent decree requires LRC to comply with the following requirements, among others:

Capital Projects to Reduce Benzene, VOC, and Other HAP Emissions

Install a flash column and either an oil/solids removal unit or a second flash column to reduce benzene in wastewater.

Cease operation or replace the two induced nitrogen gas floatation units (IGFUs).

Upgrade the collection lift station.

Cease operation or implement required design changes to its existing E-Tank.

Upgrade the flare gas recovery system by installing and operating new blowers and a new vapor header.

Perform a flare gas recovery system capacity evaluation and increase capacity, if necessary.

Replace emergency vents to reduce emissions on two units and replace pressure-vacuum vents to reduce emissions on other units.

BWON and QQQ Compliance

Comply with the EPA-preferred “6 BQ” (6 Mg) compliance option of BWON.

Develop a program document that specifies the regulatory requirements applicable to each piece of covered equipment.

Annually review process information to ensure all new waste streams are included and managed in a waste stream inventory.

Complete an NDE engineering assessment for each piece of waste management equipment subject to an NDE standard.

Install and use low-emission components or leak-free design components.

Conduct a root-cause analysis and corrective action when detectable emissions above the NDE standard have occurred twice at the same location and update engineering documents accordingly.

Conduct BWON and QQQ third-party audits every two years.

Monitoring

Perform more frequent monitoring than required under the existing regulations, including additional equipment that is the source of benzene emissions, and conduct repairs within specified time frames.

Conduct quarterly “end-of-line” sampling to verify benzene concentrations in waste streams.

Additional Measures

Install additional air monitors for benzene, toluene, and xylene, including two new monitors within the refinery fenceline, and six new monitors in the surrounding community.

Regularly post sampling data from the community air monitors to a publicly available website.

Monitor accessible connectors at the Lima Refinery in VOC service within specified process units and repair any leaks above 500 parts per million.

Training

Conduct semi-annual training on inspections, with an emphasis on visual inspections and on-the-job elements.

When fully implemented, the agreement is expected to result in the reduction of approximately 219 tons per year (tpy) of VOC emissions, over 16 tpy of HAP emissions (non-benzene), and over 4 tpy of benzene emissions.

Comment Period

The proposed settlement was lodged in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Ohio and is subject to a 30-day public comment period and final court approval. Information on submitting comments is available on the DOJ's Proposed Consent webpage.

Contact Information

For additional information on this settlement, please contact:

Constantinos Loukeris
Environmental Engineer
Enforcement and Compliance Assurance Division
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Region 5
77 W. Jackson Blvd. (ECA-18J)
Chicago, IL 60604
(312) 353-6198
[email protected]

Veronica Fischer
Environmental Engineer
Enforcement and Compliance Assurance Division
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Region 5
77 W. Jackson Blvd. (ECA-18J)
Chicago, IL 60604
(312) 353-5685
[email protected]

Laura Neudorf
Environmental Engineer
Office of Enforcement and Compliance Assurance
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
1200 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW
Washington, DC 20460
(202) 564-4482
[email protected]