EPA Calls for Pollution Controls at Mid Pac Facility

Mid Pac Petroleum LLC will pay over $600,000 in a federal Clean Air Act violation settlement with the US Environmental Protection Agency.

According to the EPA, Mid Pac Petroleum’s Kawaihae gasoline storage facility has failed to bring its gasoline loading equipment into compliance with air pollution laws for over a decade.

Each year, approximately 20 tons of VOCs were illegally discharged by the loading equipment due to the facility’s failure to control these emissions.

Tanker trucks, storage tanks and pipes can emit vapors with VOCs and dangerous air pollutants, such as benzene, a known carcinogen.

Bulk gasoline terminals are large storage tank facilities where gasoline is pumped through a loading rack into tanker trucks for distribution to gasoline service stations.

Vapors containing VOCs and hazardous air pollutants, including benzene, a known human carcinogen, can leak from the storage tanks, pipes and tanker trucks as they are loaded.

EPA Pacific Southwest Acting Regional Administrator Alexis Strauss, explained, “As with Aloha Petroleum’s facility in Hilo, we are requiring Mid Pac Petroleum to install air pollution controls, cutting health risks to local residents.”

Mid Pac Petroleum has agreed to pay a civil penalty of $200,000, in addition to the estimated $432,000 it will cost to install mandatory vapor pollution controls and meet the volatile organic compound pollution limits.

“This is EPA’s second settlement in the past year that will improve air quality on the Island of Hawai‘i,” said Alexis Strauss, the EPA’s acting regional administrator for the Pacific Southwest. “As with Aloha Petroleum’s facility in Hilo, we are requiring Mid Pac Petroleum to install air pollution controls, cutting health risks to local residents.”

For more information, go online.