Air District settles case with Tesoro Refining and Marketing Company

The violations addressed in this settlement include:

• The 2014 turnaround flaring event, where there was continuous flaring during Tesoro's 55-day turnaround, in violation of multiple Air District and federal regulations, causing significant volatile organic compounds, hydrogen sulfide, sulfur dioxide and methane emissions
• Various permitting violations
• Various excess emissions violations including crude unit vapor leaks causing excess volatile organic compound emissions, gas turbine and furnace nitrogen oxide emission control issues, failed source tests, tank seal gaps and other leaks, sulfur dioxide control violations, and visible emissions
• Recordkeeping, monitoring and reporting violations

All the violations that led to this settlement have been corrected.

The Air District issues Notices of Violation when facilities violate a specific air quality regulation or rule. Violators are generally required to respond to the notice within 10 days and submit a description of the actions they will take to correct the problem. These actions can include shutting down certain operations immediately or changing operations or equipment to come into compliance.

All settlement funds will be used to fund Air District activities such as the inspection and enforcement activities that led to this settlement.

View press release(195 Kb PDF, 2 pgs, posted 07/10/2021)( English | Tagalog | Español | 中文 ).