Analysis of Refinery Chemical Emissions and Health Effects
Total Page：16
File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb
Analysis of Refinery Chemical Emissions and Health Effects Draft September 2017 Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment California Environmental Protection Agency Matthew Rodriquez Secretary, California Environmental Protection Agency Lauren Zeise, Ph.D. Director, Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment Analysis of Refinery Chemical Emissions and Health Effects OEHHA Draft September 2017 LIST OF CONTRIBUTORS Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment California Environmental Protection Agency Authors1 Karen Riveles, PhD MPH Alyssa Nagai Reviewers Kenneth Kloc, PhD James F. Collins, PhD John Faust, PhD Melanie A. Marty, PhD Allan Hirsch Lauren Zeise, PhD 1The authors would like to acknowledge the contributions of Ms. Lilian Polsky in editing this document. Analysis of Refinery Chemical Emissions and Health Effects OEHHA Draft September 2017 CONTENTS PREFACE EXECUTIVE SUMMARY I. INTRODUCTION .................................................................................................. 1 II. LIST OF CHEMICALS EMITTED FROM CALIFORNIA REFINERIES ................. 2 III. HEALTH GUIDANCE AND EMERGENCY EXPOSURE VALUES ....................... 6 A. OEHHA AND US EPA HEALTH GUIDANCE VALUES ........................... 6 B. US EPA AND NIOSH EMERGENCY EXPOSURE LEVELS .................. 20 IV. HEALTH EFFECTS OF SELECT CALIFORNIA REFINERY CHEMICALS ........ 25 V. MOST HIGHLY EMITTED CHEMICALS AND OTHER SUPPORTING INFORMATION .................................................................................................. 31 A. CALIFORNIA REFINERY INCIDENT HISTORY ..................................... 32 B. CALIFORNIA REFINERY PROCESS UNITS, EMISSION POINTS, AND EQUIPMENT .................................................................. 33 C. CHEMICAL ANALYSIS CATEGORIES FOR AIR MONITORING ........... 34 D. MOST HIGHLY EMITTED ROUTINE EMISSIONS OF TOXIC AIR CONTAMINANTS FROM CALIFORNIA REFINERIES .......................... 35 E. NON-ROUTINE AND ROUTINE CHEMICAL EMISSIONS ..................... 38 F. REFINERY EMISSIONS IN THE US AND FUEL-BURNING EXPERIMENTS ...................................................................................... 40 VI. CONCLUSIONS ................................................................................................. 41 REFERENCES .............................................................................................................. 42 Analysis of Refinery Chemical Emissions and Health Effects OEHHA Draft September 2017 APPENDIX A: SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION ON HEALTH EFFECTS OF SELECT REFINERY CHEMICALS ...................................................... A-1 APPENDIX B: CALIFORNIA REFINERY PROCESS UNITS AND EMISSION POINTS WITH ASSOCIATED CHEMICAL EMISSIONS ..................... B-1 APPENDIX C: CALIFORNIA REFINERY CHEMICALS SORTED BY CHEMICAL ANALYSIS CATEGORY ..................................................................... C-1 APPENDIX D: ROUTINE TOXIC AIR CONTAMINANT EMISSIONS FROM CALIFORNIA REFINERIES ................................................................. D-1 APPENDIX E: NON-ROUTINE AND ROUTINE EMISSIONS ...................................... E-1 APPENDIX F: REFINERY EMISSIONS IN THE US AND FUEL-BURNING EXPERIMENTS .................................................................................... F-1 APPENDIX G: DATA ANALYSIS OF REFINERY CHEMICALS ACROSS CATEGORIES ..................................................................................... G-1 APPENDIX H: TOXICITY WEIGHTED TOTALS FOR CHEMICALS RELEASED FROM CALIFORNIA REFINERIES .................................................... H-1 APPENDIX I: LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS .................................................................. I-1 Analysis of Refinery Chemical Emissions and Health Effects OEHHA Draft September 2017 LIST OF TABLES Table 1. List of Chemicals Emitted from California Refineries ....................................... 3 Table 2. OEHHA and US EPA Health Guidance Values and Descriptions ................... 7 Table 3. Health Guidance Values for Chemicals Emitted from California Refineries .... 8 Table 4. US EPA and NIOSH Emergency Exposure Levels and Descriptions ............ 21 Table 5. Emergency Exposure Levels for Chemicals Emitted from California Refineries ...................................................................................................... 22 Table 6. Health Effects of Select California Refinery Chemicals ................................. 26 Table 7. Process Units, Emission Points, and Equipment Reported to be Associated with California Refinery Incidents .............................................. 33 Table 8. California Refinery Process Units, Emission Points, and Equipment Sorted by Release Type ........................................................................................... 34 Table 9. Chemical Analysis Categories for Air Monitoring ........................................... 34 Table 10. Toxic Air Contaminants with the 10 Highest Routine Emissions from California Refineries ...................................................................................... 37 Table 11. Ten Highest Routine Chemical Emissions by California Refineries ............... 38 Table 12. Ten Highest Non-routine Chemical Emissions by California Refineries ........ 39 Table B1. California Refinery Process Units and Emission Points with Associated Chemical Emissions .................................................................................... B-2 Table C1. California Refinery Chemicals Sorted by Chemical Analysis Category ........ E-1 Table D1. Average Annual Routine Toxic Air Contaminant Emissions for California Refineries ................................................................................................... C-1 Table E1. Annual Routine and Non-routine Chemical Emissions by California Refineries .................................................................................................... E-1 Analysis of Refinery Chemical Emissions and Health Effects OEHHA Draft September 2017 Table F1. Refinery Emissions in the US and Fuel-Burning Experiments..................... F-1 Table G1. Comparison of Chemicals with High Routine Emissions and Health Guidance Values ......................................................................................... G-3 Table G2. OEHHA REL Values for Chemicals with High Routine Emissions .............. G-3 Table G3. Chemicals Sorted by Chemical Analysis Category ..................................... G-4 Table H1. Toxicity Weighted Totals for Chemicals Released from California Refineries ................................................................................................... H-1 Analysis of Refinery Chemical Emissions and Health Effects OEHHA Draft September 2017 LIST OF FIGURES Figure 1. Relative Occurrence of Chemical Analysis Categories in Routine Toxic Air Contaminant Emissions from California Refineries ................................... 37 Figure 2. Relative Occurrence of Chemical Analysis Categories in Routine Chemical Emissions by California Refineries ................................................................. 39 Figure 3. Relative Occurrence of Chemical Analysis Categories in Non-routine Chemical Emissions by California Refineries ................................................. 40 Analysis of Refinery Chemical Emissions and Health Effects OEHHA Draft September 2017 i PREFACE The Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment (OEHHA) is collaborating with the California Air Resources Board (ARB) and the Interagency Refinery Task Force to develop information on chemicals emitted from refineries and their health effects. This information may support ARB and other groups in developing plans for air monitoring in the vicinity of refineries in California. In the event of a refinery emergency, knowledge of health guidance values and emissions of chemicals may also help emergency responders characterize potential health effects that may occur following a chemical release. In August 2012, there was a serious fire at the Chevron Refinery in Richmond, CA. During that event an estimated 15,000 people from the nearby community sought care at local emergency departments and clinics. Follow-up investigations of the incident revealed a number of refinery safety issues. In July 2013, the California Air Resources Board (ARB) released a report entitled “Air Monitoring for Accidental Refinery Releases: Assessment of Capabilities and Potential Improvements Project Plan”. This report laid out a stepwise plan to improve California’s refinery air monitoring and emergency response system. The Governor’s report, “Improving Public and Worker Safety at Oil Refineries”, released in February 2014, echoed the importance of monitoring air quality near refineries and resulted in the establishment of an Interagency Refinery Task Force coordinated by the California Environmental Protection Agency (CalEPA). In public meetings following the release of the Governor’s report, community members asked if there existed a complete list of chemicals that could be released from refineries, and if those chemicals had been prioritized for monitoring to ensure that any monitoring system would be tailored – insofar as feasible – to measure the most important chemicals. As a result of these questions from the public, OEHHA used existing information to compile a list of chemicals that may be released from refineries and prioritize that list according to the volume of the chemicals emitted and the toxicity of the