Sunoco refinery slammed with $750,000 in Delaware fines

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The owners of a former Sunoco refinery that straddles the Delaware/Pennsylvania line will pay $750,000 in fines for what state regulators called illegal modifications to equipment that allowed tons of potentially hazardous gases to be released into the air over two years.

Sunoco Partners Marketing & Terminals, which owns the industrial complex that stretches from Marcus Hook to Claymont, has agreed to pay the penalties. But the company "expressly disputes" the allegations lodged by the Delaware Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Control, according to state documents.

"SPMT has been transparent about our operations," company spokesman Jeff Shields said in an email. "We are and have been committed to operating the Marcus Hook Industrial Complex and other facilities according to state environmental regulations for emissions in Delaware and Pennsylvania."

SPMT is a subsidiary of pipeline operator Energy Transfer Partners, the main company behind the controversial Dakota Acces Pipeline that President Donald Trump helped to advance in early 2017.

Energy Transfer Partners bought Sunoco for nearly $5.4 billion in 2013 and then merged with Sunoco Logistics in a deal valued at $21 billion.

The latter deal included the local refinery complex that entails 80 acres in Pennsylvania and 45 acres in Delaware known as the Ethylene Complex, along with the Mariner East pipeline that carries propane and ethane to Marcus Hook.

Since then, the Marcus Hook facility has been undergoing a transformation that will turn the former refinery into a hub for its natural gas liquid pipeline, while the Delaware side has seen little development.

A 240-foot-tall gas flare on the Delaware side that was supposed to burn up excess gases released during an emergency is now costing SPMT three-quarters of a million dollars in fines.  

According to DNREC, the flare was modified at some point to receive gases from multiple sources throughout the Marcus Hook side of the facility, although no permit for those changes was ever sought by the company.

The modifications also allowed the facility to release roughly 45 tons of potentially harmful gases from 2014 through 2015 without DNREC's permission or knowledge, agency officials said.

Neither the settlement agreement released Friday nor a violation notice issued to SPMT in August specifies the exact amounts or types of volatile organic compounds that were released.

Other documents obtained by The News Journal show the pollution included corrosive chemicals such as hydrogen chloride and hydrogen flouride, along with nitrogen oxides, carbon monoxide, sulfur dioxide and other greenhouse gases linked to respiratory problems and other health issues.

Those substances also have been of increasing concern to DNREC, which recently has filed lawsuits and petitions aimed at out-of-state sources of those gases that state regulators say are contributing to health problems in Delaware.

The flare modifications in Claymont were discovered by DNREC in June 2016, according to state records.

At that time, SPMT was seeking a permit to install a new flare in Claymont to replace the existing structure.

The company notified DNREC that its initial application contained emission data based on the flare's permitted use for emergencies and not its actual, modified use to burn off gases from other sources, the agency reported.

DNREC later rejected SPMT's application as "incomplete."

SPMT has since sought permission from Pennsylvania officials to construct a new flare in the Keystone State that will burn off gases throughout the Marcus Hook Industrial Complex.

Under the settlement reached with the company, DNREC will allow the Delaware flare to continue receiving those gases until the new Pennsylvania flare is fully operational.

In the next 30 days, the company also will pay a $600,000 fine to resolve the nine regulatory violations cited by DNREC. Another $150,000 in fines will be paid to help cover the cost of upgrades to DNREC's air quality monitoring system.

Settling what SPMT has characterized as "potential inconsistencies in our permitting," could be vital to the company's future plans in Delaware.

State officials have long looked with envy at SPMT's $5 billion investment in upgrades in Pennsylvania and the associated 5,000 construction jobs created by that work.

Extending those upgrades into Delaware became a little easier last year when Gov. John Carney and the Delaware General Assembly amended the state's Coastal Zone Act for the first time in its nearly 50-year history.

Shields, the SPMT spokesman, said Friday that the settlement "will clear the way for future development and investment on the Delaware side of the Marcus Hook Industrial Complex."

NATURAL RESOURCES IN DELAWARE

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Contact reporter Scott Goss at (302) 324-2281, sgoss@delawareonline.com or on Twitter @ScottGossDel.