HF Sinclair Navajo Refining LLC reached a "proposed" $172 million settlement with the U.S. Justice Department, the Environmental Protection Agency and the New Mexico Environment Department last week following alleged air quality violations at the company's Artesia, New Mexico, refinery, the Department of Justice reported in a press release published on the organization's website.
Subsidiary of HF Sinclair Corp., HF Sinclair Navajo has been ordered to pay a civil penalty of $35 million, owed in equal shares to the U.S. and the State of New Mexico.
An HF Sinclair company spokesperson could not be immediately reached for comment.
The settlement also calls for the Artesian refinery to implement compliance measures at an estimated cost of $137 million, including "significant" capital investments to reduce emissions at the facility.
The suit comes on the heels of a 2019 joint investigation led by the EPA and NMED, where the organizations observed "significant and ongoing noncompliance" contributing to the facility's elevated emission levels and violation of the Clean Air Act and the New Mexico Air Quality Control Act.
The complaint alleges HF Sinclair Navajo's failure to comply with state and federal requirements has resulted in unlawful emissions of volatile organic compound, sulfur dioxide and benzene.
Plaintiffs dubbed the Artesia refinery as a "major source of hazardous air pollutants" following claims of carcinogenic emissions billowing from the facility.
The agencies estimate that the required compliance measures will reduce roughly 97,551 tons of carbon dioxide emission equivalence annually, if implemented.
HF Sinclair Navajo must also install 10 real-time air pollution monitors along the refinery fence line and one real-time air pollution monitor and six other passive monitors in the town of Artesia to measure refinery air pollution emissions and make the results available on a public website.
The settlement also calls for the refiner to implement a flare gas recovery system, upgrades to wastewater equipment, enhanced air monitoring program and storage vessels.
HF Sinclair Navajo agreed to improve leak detection measures and repair practices to process equipment, while also beefing up inspection and chemical monitoring of heat exchangers.
"In 2018 and 2019, monitoring at the refinery recorded the highest refinery fenceline benzene concentrations in the country," the DOJ press release said.
"Under the settlement HF Sinclair Navajo agreed to operate and maintain air pollution monitors at the facility fenceline and in the community at an estimated cost of $1.8 million."
"HF Sinclair Navajo's failure to monitor and control the release of benzene, a known carcinogen, and other hazardous and toxic air pollutants posed a significant threat and potential health risks to the nearby community," said Acting Assistant Administrator Cecil Rodriguez of EPA's Office of Enforcement and Compliance Assurance. "The monitoring required by today's settlement will ensure that the community and state and federal regulators will have real-time emissions data to help ensure the community is protected against future health impacts from the refinery's operations."
The Navajo refinery, in conjunction with a refining facility in Lovington, New Mexico, process sweet and sour Permian crude. The refinery has a crude oil capacity of 100,000 b/d, serving New Mexico, Arizona and West Texas, the company said on its website.
The Artesia facility is also equipped with pre-treatment and renewable diesel units, generating 9,000 b/d of renewable diesel.
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--Reporting by Sydnee Novak, sbeach@opisnet.com; Editing by Bayan Raji, braji@opisnet.com
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01-24-25 1416ET