Shell Polymers Monaca, a petrochemical plant in Beaver County, has been emitting harmful nitrogen oxides above legally permissible levels for nearly three years without clear enforcement action from the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection.
The large-scale facility, which began operations in fall 2022, has had its original interim operating permit extended seven times. The company has not yet received a long-term Title V permit, and environmentalists argue that repeated temporary extensions could protect the company from stricter regulation by the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection (DEP).
“The (temporary permit) extension is intended to hold the facility during Title V review and processing. That did not happen here, giving Shell plenty of extra time to ‘work out the bugs’ at the facility,” the Clean Air Council, a Philadelphia-based environmental nonprofit, wrote in a statement to Public Source. “Unfortunately, those ‘bugs’ persist.”
The council is a plaintiff in a two-year-old lawsuit alleging that Shell “continues to emit illegal air pollutants” in violation of the Clean Air Act and the Pennsylvania Clean Air Act, a violation that would have resulted in fines of more than $100 million.
On October 31, 2022, Dominic Treemarchi points to a cracker factory from his window. “Do you see it flickering?” he asked, looking at the flames rising from a large smoke bomb near the water. “It’s up and down, up and down.” (Photo by Quinn Glabicki/Pittsburgh Public Source)
A Shell spokesperson told Public Source in a letter that the company is “cooperating with relevant regulatory authorities throughout the process and remains committed to protecting people and the environment and being a responsible neighbor to the communities in which we live and work.”
DEP, which is responsible for regulating emissions and issuing related permits, said it “utilizes a variety of tools, including inspections, reporting, continuous monitoring, testing, and permitting, to regulate facilities and protect the environment and public health.” It added that Shell’s latest construction proposal “includes remedial measures to resolve outstanding compliance issues and is currently open for public comment.”
cracks and emissions
Ethane cracker plants use very high temperatures to crack or “crack” ethane gas molecules into ethylene, which is then used to make polyethylene pellets for plastic products.
What is not broken down into ethane must be disposed of at a factory, usually by igniting the gas and converting it to carbon dioxide and water before it is released into the atmosphere. Excess emissions can be caused by leaking equipment or inefficient combustion, according to experts and court records.
Allows you to set limits on that pollution. Potential major sources of air pollution in Pennsylvania must operate under temporary permits included in plant construction and test plan approvals or long-term Title V operating permits. Both permits set maximum emission rates for 11 air pollutants, measured on a 12-month cycle, and are enforceable under the federal Clean Air Act and the Pennsylvania Clean Air Act.
“The idea is that this (preliminary plan) approval will ensure that any new or modified sources comply with both state and federal air quality regulations before they actually begin operations,” said Hilary Flint, communications consultant for the Marcellus Awareness Community of Beaver County, a local environmental watchdog group.
In May 2023, a consent order and agreement between Shell and DEP found that Shell had exceeded allowable emission levels since its inception for four pollutants:
- Volatile organic compounds (VOCs)
- carbon monoxide
- Hazardous Air Pollutants (HAP)
- Nitrogen oxides, or NOx.
Shell was ordered to pay more than $4.9 million to resolve the state’s claims for civil penalties, and an additional $5 million for projects that would “benefit the environment, health, and quality of life of communities near the facility.” Since then, no new fines or fines have been imposed despite regular violations.
One contaminant remained above the maximum allowed
A large spike when the plant began operations in September 2022 inflated the average 12-month emissions in the first year of operation, followed by a clear dip when the start of operations fell from the moving average sample.
However, NOx remained consistently above acceptable levels.
NOx is produced by burning excess gas from the ethylene production process. Even small amounts of NOx can irritate the eyes, nose, throat, and respiratory system. Ingestion of large amounts can cause respiratory and cardiovascular problems, and over time it can also cause asthma and cardiovascular disease. NOx can also react with other chemicals to form particulate matter and ozone, both of which are harmful to humans.
Shell has exceeded NOx emissions limits based on a 12-month moving average in each month since launch. The company received 23 violation notices from the DEP, noting that exceeding the emission caps “constitutes an offense and constitutes a public nuisance,” and that the notices “do not impose or exempt any enforcement action.” DEP does not appear to have taken any other enforcement action. DEP said in a statement that it has collected civil penalties for violations through 2023, noting that the statute of limitations has not yet expired for subsequent violations.
Excerpt from the Jan. 23 violation notice sent by the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection to Shell Chemical Appalachia General Manager Nathan Levin.
“I don’t understand how a facility can remain open, let alone qualify for a permit, when they have 23 unresolved high-priority violations on top of the other violations that occur each month,” Flint said.
State allows temporary permit to continue
Shell’s interim operating permit in its original planning approval was valid for 180 days until the plant would need to apply for a formal Title V operating permit. Since filing its first extension application in August 2022, Shell has applied for and received six further 180-day extensions, the latest of which is scheduled to expire on April 28, 2026. The company does not have a Title V permit.
“The community is disappointed, although there is no clear answer why DEP continues to extend temporary permits. Legally, there is no clear limit on the number of extensions,” the Clean Air Council wrote.
“Historically, planning approvals have been extended until the facility has demonstrated compliance during temporary operation with all conditions of the planning approval, after which an operating permit application must be submitted,” DEP wrote in an email to Public Source.
On February 22, 2024, DEP notified Shell that its Title V operating permit application was due in June of that year. Hilary Starcher O’Toole, executive director of the Marcellus Awareness Community of Beaver County, said the schedule of planning approval extensions and the Title V application show Shell is in no hurry to meet permit requirements.
“If you look at the dates, you can see how close they are,” Starcher O’Toole said. “They wouldn’t have filed (a Title V application) if they hadn’t been told they had to do it.”
Shell submitted its application in June 2024 with the following caveat: A separate application for planning permission and an accompanying application for a temporary operating license are being prepared and will likely be invalidated.
In May of the following year, DEP contacted Shell and requested a renewal application that included information for the fourth planning approval. Since then, Shell has requested and received two enhancements for updated Title V applications.
Imposing fines as “costs of business activities”
In an ongoing lawsuit originally filed in May 2023, the Environmental Integrity Project and the Clean Air Council estimated that Shell could be liable for up to $117,468 per day for each Clean Air Act violation and $25,000 per day for each Pennsylvania Clean Air Act violation. This could result in fines of up to approximately $134 million for 31 NOx violations from May 2023 to December 2025.
The lawsuit requires the plant to comply with state and federal environmental laws and to compensate for damages caused by previous violations, including paying fines for 31 months of unresolved excess NOx violations.
Advocates are realistic about the extent of penalties that could result.
“Neither Pennsylvania nor the commonwealth has ever enforced these fines to their fullest extent,” the council said in a statement to Public Source. “Typically, the total fines are much lower, and polluters consider these fines to be a normal part of doing business.”
A DEP spokesperson wrote that the agency “does not comment on potential future enforcement actions.”
DEP declined to comment on why further enforcement was not carried out after the violation notification.
Katherine Weaver is an editorial intern at Public Source in Pittsburgh. Contact details are as follows: katherine@publicsource.org.
This story was fact-checked by James Pratt.
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