Newhall Refining Draws Its 12th Citation

Air quality officials have issued the Newhall Refining Co. oil processing plant its 12th violation notice since April, this one for emitting annoying odors.

The citation was issued this week after several odor complaints about the Newhall plant Sunday, according to Arnold Stein, a branch chief in the enforcement division of the South Coast Air Quality Management District.

Jo-Ann Marsh, one of the Newhall residents who complained to the district, described the odor as “like rotten eggs.”

But air district officials said they do not believe the refinery produced the gaseous odors that prompted more than 50 complaints from residents of the northern San Fernando Valley early last week. Stein said he is “fairly certain” that various active and inactive landfills emitted those odors, which were detectable during several days of unusually stagnant air.

Concerning the odors on Sunday that led to the complaints in Newhall, “the inspector says he thinks it was us,” said Robert Gillon, a lawyer for the refinery. But “we’re not sure that that was us.”

Most of the other citations issued to the refinery since April accused it of emitting too much sulfur dioxide--a lung irritating gas that contributes to acid rain--and with running boilers and heaters with fuel containing too much hydrogen sulfide.

Although many large industrial plants are cited occasionally for violating district rules, a dozen citations in a few months is unusual.

The latest citation, issued Monday, was the first involving odor. But Marsh said oppressive odors from the refinery have been fairly common since April, when it began having problems with its sulfur-control equipment.

“It’s a noxious odor,” said Marsh, a schoolteacher who lives on Placerita Canyon Road about three or four miles downwind from the plant.

“It permeates everything. It lasts inside a closed house for a number of hours after it’s dissipated outside. I don’t know how to describe how awful it is.”

Marsh said that the smell has made her and some of her neighbors feel ill and that her healthy 7-year-old son suddenly began wheezing uncontrollably as he played outside on a recent day when the odor was heavy.

Each of the 12 violation notices pending against Newhall is punishable by a penalty of up to $1,000.

Refinery and air district officials attributed most of the violation notices to malfunction of sulfur-control equipment at the refinery.

Recognizing that more violations are likely, the company has asked the district for protection from additional citations through next March, by which time it hopes to have the equipment working properly.

A public hearing on the request for a variance from sulfur emission rules is scheduled Sept. 10 at district headquarters in El Monte.

According to the company’s petition for a variance, the recent malfunctions involve a $100,000 sulfur-recovery unit the company installed in 1985 to supplement an older sulfur-control system.

Previously, when the single sulfur-control system broke down, the refinery would emit about 500 pounds of sulfur an hour above permitted levels for periods ranging from six to 48 hours--or as much as several tons in the space of two days, the petition said.

According to the company, the use of two sulfur-control units has eliminated such major pollution episodes, and the recent breakdowns typically have resulted in emissions of only a few pounds of excess sulfur.

Between now and March--the term of the proposed variance--only 300 pounds of excess emissions are likely, the company said.

“I doubt that the people in the district would ever even know” about the extra emissions, Gillon said. “They’re so minute compared to all the other sources of emissions, and even, happy to say, our emissions before” the second unit came on line.

Agree on Estimate

Stein said air district officials agree that the extra emissions will be small while Newhall works on a solution.

“They, at least on the surface, appear to be trying to do everything they can to take care of the problem,” Stein said. Stein said the company also has complied with requirements that it notify the air district when a breakdown occurs.

But he said the district isn’t “sure we’re going to support” the variance request because it’s unclear “what their plans are . . . to mitigate the problems.”

The refinery, which is on Clampitt Road between the Antelope Valley Freeway and Sierra Highway, processes about 23,000 barrels of crude oil a day into diesel fuel and other products. The company, which has about 100 employees, is a subsidiary of Pauley Petroleum Inc.

The refinery paid the air district $7,500 last year to settle 13 citations for various violations in 1984 and 1985, according to Gillon.

In 1984, Newhall paid $75,000 in penalties and investigative expenses to settle a lawsuit filed by the state attorney general. The lawsuit accused the refinery of selling diesel fuel that did not meet minimum quality standards designed to protect automobile engines.