Estimated read time: 4-5 minutes
This archived news story is available only for your personal, non-commercial use. Information in the story may be outdated or superseded by additional information. Reading or replaying the story in its archived form does not constitute a republication of the story.
SALT LAKE CITY — State air quality regulators agreed Thursday to extend the public comment period on a Salt Lake refinery's proposed expansion for another 30 days and they will also host a public meeting on Tesoro's plans.
The extension of the comment period to April 22 on the refinery's proposed expansion comes the same day opponents to the plan were to host a town hall meeting at 7 p.m. at Bountiful City Hall, 790 S. 100 East.
A group of Davis County residents has teamed with doctors concerned about the air quality impacts and health risks of the refineries clustered along the Salt Lake and Davis counties border to mount opposition to any expansion.
A public hearing on the proposal hosted by the Utah Division of Air Quality is scheduled for 6:30 p.m. April 17, in Room 1015, in the Multi Agency State Office Building, 195 N. 1950 West.
The growing angst over having refineries as neighbors is being stoked by Chevron's upgrades already under way, Tesoro's expansion plans under review by the division and the announcement by HollyFrontier to sink $225 million into its Woods Cross refinery to nearly double production from 31,000 barrels a day to 60,000 barrels a day.
All three companies are looking to better accommodate handling and processing of thick waxy crude that comes out of eastern Utah.
Tonight, Thursday March 22 - 7 p.m.
Bountiful City Hall
790 South 100 East, Bountiful HollyFrontier meeting
April 11 - 6:30 p.m.
West Bountiful Elementary School auditorium/lunch room
Tesoro, for example, wants to add tanks, new unloading racks and a loading bay to more efficiently handle receipt of the yellow wax crude and black wax crude, which is a thick, gelatin-like material that has to be transferred from the tanker trucks quickly.
"As we have worked with the refineries over the years, they have avoided this heavy crude," said Marty Gray, the state air quality division's permitting manager for refineries. "This crude solidifies really quick. When they receive shipments of this heavy crude from eastern Utah, it has to go to the front of the line."
Tesoro will be able to take more of the thick waxy crude by taking advantage of a new, 399-mile UNEV pipeline operated by HollyFrontier that began conveying the refined product to Las Vegas earlier this year.
The Nevada connection has local residents fuming.
"Davis County citizens will not accept more toxic emissions in order to feed the fuel demands of out-of-state consumers," said a prepared statement from the Davis County Community Coalition, an activist group formed three years ago to monitor a variety of issues including air quality. "While economic development is good, it is only acceptable if local air quality does not worsen as a result."
Critics such as the coalition's president, Cecilee Price-Huish, assert that since Davis and Salt Lake counties already fail to meet federally mandated air quality standards, it is wrong for the state to allow industrial expansions before the problem is brought under control.
"It is a question of how much industry we can grow in this non-attainment area with air quality such a concern," she said.
Gray said while Tesoro's expansion plans would cause increases in emissions, the increases are not significant and do not exceed the emissions' cap allowed by the division.
"All of the refineries have limits on what they can emit," he said. "They operate well under those limits."
HollyFrontier's environmental manager Mike Astin said the addition of sophisticated equipment to boost production at the Woods Cross plant will actually bring overall emissions down.
Fine particulates such as PM2.5, volatile organic compounds and sulfur dioxide, he added, will "go down substantially." He said he hopes the permit paperwork will be submitted soon to state regulators for their review and for scrutiny by the public.
If approved, construction could begin later this year.
The state is in the process of coming up with a pollution plan to curtail PM2.5 emissions that will be have to be submitted to the EPA by the end of this year.
Gray says the division is constrained to operate under the rules already on the books dealing with pollutants — and if a company meets those defined standards it is operating within the parameter of its permit.
The new pollution plan, he added, may call for additional controls once it is approved, and those requirements would be passed onto permit applicants.
Contributing: John Hollenhorst
