Testimony of Ryan Knapick, Staff Attorney, on behalf of the Clean Air Council 

Before the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency on the Proposed Rulemaking, Petroleum 

Refinery Sector Risk and Technology Review and New Source Performance Standards, 79 

Federal Register 36880 

August 5, 2014 

Hello, my name is Ryan Knapick and I am a staff attorney for the Clean Air Council. Clean Air 

Council is a non-profit environmental organization headquartered in Philadelphia. The Council 

has members throughout the State of Pennsylvania. For more than 40 years, the Council has 

fought to improve air quality across the Mid-Atlantic region and to protect everyone's right to 

breathe clean air. Thank you for the opportunity to speak today. 

Clean Air Council supports EPA's efforts to promulgate first time rules that would require 

operators of petroleum refineries to monitor hazardous air pollutants, specifically benzene, at the 

fenceline of the facility. These proposed rules are of increased importance to the Council 

because they will directly affect the Pennsylvania Energy Solutions (PES) refinery located in 

South Philadelphia. This refinery is adjacent to socially vulnerable areas, including the Grays 

Ferry neighborhood. Formerly operated by Sunoco, this refinery has also previously been a 

chronic violator of its permits and was subject to numerous suits by federal and city agencies. 

The proposed rules are also a positive step to ensuring refineries, such as PES, measure and 

report toxic air pollution entering local communities and take corrective action when limits are 

exceeded. However, the Council also believes that EPA should strengthen these rules so they 

actually protect people from exposure to toxic air pollution. 

Fenceline monitoring and the related corrective action standards must mandate the use of the best 

current technology to give neighborhoods a real-time, continuous measure of pollution, not just a 

snapshot, and ensure that refineries must quickly fix all pollution problems through enforceable 

corrective action requirements. EPA must give stronger weight to the concerns raised in the 

proposed rule regarding passive diffusive sampling, including the lack of real-time information 

and feedback, and short-term temporal information that would identify the time and duration of 

fugitive emission events. 

Thus, Clean Air Council supports the implementation of active fenceline monitoring networks at 

all facilities affected by this proposed rule. Further, the Council believes that the advantages in 

information gathering and subsequent benefit to communities located near refineries will 

outweigh any concerns related to expense and labor. Indeed, EPA has determined that active 

monitoring station networks are technically feasible and are an appropriate method for measuring 

fugitive emissions of hazardous air pollutants at refinery fencelines. 

In addition to removing all unlawful exemptions (including for startups, shutdowns, 

malfunctions, and other uncontrolled emissions) and finalizing its proposal to ban uncontrolled 

emissions from pressure valves and bypasses, EPA should not finalize any special dispensation 
for industry that loosens emission limits during startups, shutdowns, or malfunctions. EPA must 

also finalize limits for delayed coker units and storage tanks that are as strong as possible. 

Lastly, EPA must require stronger protection from wastewater and all other emission points, 

rather than rejecting protections based on a distorted and inappropriate consideration of the costper-ton of reductions. 

In summary, Clean Air Council believes the EPA must seize this opportunity to implement truly 

robust and effective standards for petroleum refmeries, including active monitoring station 

networks at the fencelines of these facilities. Otherwise, communities such as Grays Ferry will 

be ill equipped to properly address the environmental health risks they face on a daily basis. 

Thank you.