AAH Report: EPA Announces Refineries Under-Reporting Air Pollution Emissions

From an article in airCurrent News, a publication of Air Alliance Houston:

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has determined that flares at refineries and chemical plants emit about four times more volatile organic compounds (VOCs) a smog-forming air pollutant than previously reported.  EPA also found that Fluid Catalytic Cracking Units at refineries emit more than 10 times more hydrogen cyanide per year, releasing more than 3000 tons more of this powerful neurotoxin each year than previously reported, and more than one third the combined total of all hazardous air pollutants refineries reported to the Toxics Release Inventory in 2013.

Houston Ship Channel
on a crystal-clear day

The new EPA guidelines were prompted by a 2013 lawsuit by the Environmental Integrity Project on behalf of Air Alliance Houston, Community In-Power and Development, the Louisiana Bucket Brigade, and Texas Environmental Justice Advocacy Services.  EPA revised its methodology for estimating emissions from flares used at various industries, including refineries and chemical plants after determining that they release four times more VOCs than reported by industry in the past.  VOCs contribute to smog and include benzene and other carcinogens.  Although EPA is apparently informing reporters that these emission factors should not be used to estimate VOC releases from flares and oil and gas drilling sites, the agency has not made this distinction in the guidance it has published today or in previous versions.

“The VOC air pollution plume from flares is four times larger than we thought, and that multiplies their contribution to health problems,” said Eric Schaeffer, Executive Director of the Environmental Integrity Project.  “Based on this new data, flares deserve more attention from state and local regulators.”

...

Ah, yes, the lying bastards diligent corporate citizens hard at work for their own profit your city's benefit. Please read the rest of the article, if you survive the air you breathe long enough to reach the end...

Ah! Another Spring In South Texas, And Everyone Is Breathing Mexico...

Agricultural burn, 2013

You may think I neglected to finish that last phrase, and should have said something like "breathing Mexico's Spring air." You wouldn't be wrong, but that rendering wouldn't tell the real story. Here's an excerpt from a forecast page on TCEQ's air quality site, a page that changes daily but not greatly at this time of year (you may skim; detailed reading is not necessary):

Monday 03/31/14
Smoke and haze from Mexico and Central America should return to South Texas this afternoon and evening and could raise the daily PM2.5 AQI into the "Moderate" range in the Brownsville-McAllen area. Elsewhere in the state, moderate winds and low incoming background levels should help to keep air quality in the "Good" range.

Tuesday 04/01/14
Smoke and haze from Mexico and Central America should continue in South Texas and should spread northward into Central Texas and southeastern portions of West Texas. The daily PM2.5 AQI could reach "Moderate" levels over most of the area along and south of a line from Port Lavaca to Temple to Abilene to Sanderson. Winds should be strong enough to generate blowing dust in parts of far West Texas and the Panhandle but the duration and intensity are not likely to be enough to raise the daily PM10 AQI beyond the "Good" range. Elsewhere in the state, moderate winds and low incoming background levels should help to keep air quality in the "Good" range.

Wednesday 04/02/14 Outlook
Smoke and haze from Mexico and Central America should cover South, Central, and North Central Texas, mainly along and west of a line from Port Lavaca to Bonham and along and east of a line from Del Rio to San Angelo to Abilene to Wichita Falls. The daily PM2.5 AQI could reach "Moderate" levels over most of this area. Winds should be strong enough to generate blowing dust in parts of far West Texas and the Panhandle which could raise the daily PM10 AQI into the "Moderate" range in the El Paso area but elsewhere the duration and intensity are not likely to be enough to raise the daily PM10 AQI beyond the "Good" range. Elsewhere in the state, moderate winds and low incoming background levels should help to keep air quality in the "Good" range.

Thursday 04/03/14 Outlook
Smoke and haze from Mexico and Central America should cover most of the eastern half of the state in the morning and could raise the daily PM2.5 AQI to "Moderate" levels over much of this area, mainly along and east of a line from Laredo to Kerrville to Mineral Wells to Gainesville. A cold front should push the smoke out of most of Central and North Central Texas by the evening. Winds should be strong enough to generate blowing dust in parts of far West Texas and the Panhandle and blowing dust could raise the daily PM10 AQI into the "Moderate" range in the El Paso and Lubbock areas. Elsewhere in the state, moderate winds and lower incoming background levels should help to keep air quality in the "Good" range.

I probably should have made that blockquote soot-colored...

As KHOU-TV Channel 11 summarized it in the Spring of 2013,

HOUSTON -- The smoke and haze in the Houston area is coming from agricultural burning in Mexico, according to KHOU 11 News Chief Meteorologist.

The air has reached unhealthy levels for sensitive people in Pasadena, Deer Park and southeast Houston. ,,,

...

Then KHOU offers "... a fire [sic] of the Mexican fires and smoke." I don't think I really need one; the air is already bringing me more than I want. But if you click through to the Navy map, you'll see that in varying degrees the air in most of the US is affected. There's no preventing it; Mexican farmers have been clearing land this way for at least all of my life.