Environmental groups sue Shell over air pollution violations at cracker plant in Beaver County

Julie Grant/The Allegheny Front

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Julie Grant got her start in public radio at age 19 while at Miami University in Ohio. After studying land ethics in graduate school at Kent State University, Julie covered environmental issues in the Great Lakes region for Michigan Radio’s Environment Report and North Country Public Radio in New York. She’s won many awards, including an Edward R. Murrow Award in New York, and was named “Best Reporter” in Ohio by the Society of Professional Journalists. Her stories have aired on NPR’s Morning Edition , The Splendid Table and Studio 360. Julie loves covering agricultural issues for the Allegheny Front—exploring what we eat, who produces it and how it’s related to the natural environment.

Courtesy of Breathe Project

A flare at Shell's Monaca plant February 13, 2023.

May 12, 2023 | 10:40 AM

Two environmental groups filed a federal lawsuit Thursday against Shell for repeated violations of its air permit at its ethane cracker in Beaver County, along the Ohio River.

“Shell needs to truly clean up its act and make sure that it is not imposing illegal pollution and health risks on the community,” said Alex Bomstein, legal director of Clean Air Council, which filed the lawsuit in coordination with the Environmental Integrity Project in U.S. District Court in Pittsburgh.

People have already reported breathing difficulties and headaches they associate with the release of pollutants from the plant, Bomstein said.

The suit calls for Shell to remedy and prevent “repeated and ongoing violations” of the Clean Air Act and the Pennsylvania Air Pollution Control Act, in its emissions of volatile organic compounds(VOCs), nitrogen oxides and visible emissions from its flares.

Every 12 months, Shell is allowed to emit a certain amount of each of these pollutants. When it comes to VOCs, “They have exceeded that rolling 12-month limit every month since September of 2022,” according to Jennifer Duggan, deputy director of the Environmental Integrity Project. For nitrogen oxides, “They have exceeded that 12-month limit every month since December of 2022,” she said.

Duggan said visible flares are prohibited under Shell’s permit for more than 5 minutes during any two consecutive hours.

“The reason is that black smoke from flares indicate that the flare is not operating properly,” she said. “When we see black smoke from flares, we know that it’s releasing dangerous air pollution like fine particulate matter, benzene and other pollution.”

Benzene is a carcinogen that can cause long term health problems.

According to the lawsuit, visible flaring at the Shell plant exceeded the five minutes within a consecutive two hour period multiple times.

The Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection has issued about a dozen notices of permit violations to Shell since the plant opened last year.

In February, the environmental groups filed a legal notice of their intent to sue Shell for the air violations.

“It’s been past the 60 days, and Shell has not taken action to address these concerns. And DEP or EPA has not initiated a formal enforcement action,” Duggan said.

The Pennsylvania DEP did not respond to a request for comment.

Duggan noted that in the past week there was a fire at a Shell chemical plant in Houston, where the company had nearly 2000 environmental violations, according to Texas state records, as reported by Oil and Gas Watch.

In response to Thursday’s lawsuit, Shell said it is committed to complying with county, state and federal regulations.

“And when there is an issue, we work to fix it,” said company spokesperson Curtis Thomas in an email. “We learn from those issues and work to improve so that we can be the good environmental steward, neighbor, and business partner this region wants and deserves.”

He noted that production at the plant has been temporarily shut down and will remain offline while Shell addresses an issue with the flaring system, which led to a DEP notice of violation earlier this year.