Refineries did not pollute after Katrina

Countering environmentalists, the Louisiana Department of Environmental Quality said Nov. 30 that oil refineries did not pollute after Hurricane Katrina even though they were granted waivers from environmental restrictions.

“No state or federal standard is being exceeded for any of the pollutants that we’re looking at,” said Jim Hazlett, a DEQ senior environmental scientist.

On Nov. 30, environmentalists said that sample results taken after Katrina by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency showed high levels of benzene were found near refineries and other locations in southeast Louisiana. Benzene is a component in gasoline and it can cause cancer.

Anne Rolfes, the director of the Louisiana Bucket Brigade, said the high levels of benzene were the result of refineries being allowed to emit more pollutants than they usually can. EPA and DEQ issued the waivers so refineries could get back in operation sooner.

John Millett, an EPA spokesman, said there is no link between the high benzene levels and the waivers.

The Bucket Brigade compared results taken by EPA mobile laboratories with Louisiana’s yearly average benzene standard. The EPA laboratories were brought into Louisiana after Katrina to discover if ambient pollution was a problem.

Hazlett called the Bucket Brigade’s comparison “totally inappropriate and misleading” because the EPA samples were “instantaneous readings” while the annual average standard is a composite of benzene emissions over a year.

Rodney Mallett, a DEQ spokesman, said that if the average yearly benzene standard was applied all the time “it would impossible to light a cigarette or start a car” without violating the standard. Rolfes called that statement “grossly inaccurate.”

Hazlett said that regular, 24-hour sampling at the refineries since Katrina show that the plants did not at any time exceed the yearly benzene standard.

EPA’s samples from mobile laboratories that detected high levels of benzene, Rolfes charged, show that DEQ’s regular sampling system is “worthless.”

“This just shows how crumby those systems are,” she said.

Hazlett denied that, saying that DEQ’s monitoring stations work well and give the public an accurate assessment of air quality.

He said EPA’s high readings “could have been from a refinery or a passing vehicle,” but that they should not be viewed as an indication of sustained and high levels of benzene in an area.

—The Associated Press