Fellow Mobile Residents,

Please join us in writing a letter to permitting regulator, Ronald W. Gore at ADEM’s Air Division, respectfully requesting a public hearing so that impacted communities may participate fully in the air permitting process that affects most but rarely engages any.

Please do not hesitate. These must be received by the regulator by Thursday, December 24, 2015!! You can mail it in first thing Monday, but the safer bet is to hand deliver them to the ADEM office at Mobile Coastal Field Office, 3664 Dauphin Street, Suite B Mobile, AL 36608.

Plains has applied for a Major Source Operating Permit (MSOP) through ADEM’s Air Division. MSOPs are 5-year permits required for facilities triggering Title V “regulation” under the Clean Air Act.

Unfortunately at the current time due to having been grandfathered in, the level of “regulation” for old petrochemical storage tank farms like this one is little more than filing the permit for the emissions that are suspected. There are no reporting or testing requirements, thus facilities like Plains’ tank farm operate only by the friendly guesswork of regulators who don’t have local or state emissions reporting requirements, like ADEM.

This facility’s emission products are linked to risks for respiratory diseases, cancers, and birth defects not to mention the highly likely negative impacts to property values. Given these concerns, antiquated and unacceptable approaches to “regulation” warrant challenge.

For those interested in verifying that the code doesn’t require any testing whatsoever, the statement that the tanks aren’t required to have any testing or emissions reporting is found on page 17 of 68 of Plains’ MSOP permit application here [23.6mb PDF]. Also available are the relevant sections of the federal code (40 CFR Part 60 Subpart Kb) and ADEM Admin Code r.355-3-6-.03 (SIP) [508kb PDF] that are cross-referenced in the permit application with regards to Clean Air Act jurisdiction.

Again, please do not hesitate. These must be received by the regulator by Thursday, December 24, 2015!! You can mail it in first thing Monday, but the safer bet is to hand deliver them to the ADEM office at Mobile Coastal Field Office, 3664 Dauphin Street, Suite B Mobile, AL 36608.

Plains’ tank farm proximity to Africatown

For a little background on where this facility fits into the larger picture of the threats facing Africatown and Mobile, the pipeline laid from this facility connects to the one traveling across the Big Creek Lake watershed to Chevron’s massive Pascagoula, Mississippi chemical refinery. That same pipeline was proposed to be tied into the currently tabled massive expansion of petrochemical transport and storage facilities in Africatown adjacent to the historic Mobile County Training School.

Thank you for taking a stand for resident participation in decisions that affect them!

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Here is a SAMPLE LETTER with all of the relevant addressing information. It is not ready to print and sign. Please use it as a style guide for your own thoughts:

December 21, 2015

Public Hearing Request Re: Facility/Permit No. 503-3013
Plains Marketing L.P.’s Mobile Terminal at Magazine Point

Ronald W. Gore, ADEM-Air Division
PO Box 301463
Montgomery, AL 36130-1463

Dear Mr. Gore,

Out of concern about Plains’ above ground petrochemical storage tank farm at Magazine Point, Facility/Permit No. 503-3013, I am formally requesting a public hearing for this permit request.

Magazine Point, where this facility is located, is the site where the 110 survivors of Clotilde landed after their perilous journey across the Atlantic after being sold into slavery to the Meaher family. [For residents in proximity:] I live [x amount of distance] from the Plains facility, and I smell noxious oil and asphalt odors in and around my home on a regular basis. I believe this facility’s 17 storage tanks to be a significant contributor to the ongoing nuisance. [If you are not close enough to smell the tank emissions, please note how you are affected or concerned by what you have heard]

Concerns have been repeatedly raised by prominent area medical professionals that chronic exposure to the Volatile Organic Compound (VOC) and Hazardous Air Pollutants (HAP) emissions from facilities like this as well as the resultant photochemical ozone made from reactions involving VOCs, nitrogen oxides and sunlight could cause respiratory diseases, cancers, and birth defects.

In light of the permit application stating plainly that emissions testing requirements would only be applicable to any of the tanks at this facility if gasoline is eventually stored, I am concerned that the proposed permit is actually unenforceable with respect to the damaging VOC and HAP emissions regulated under Title V of the Clean Air Act.

According to ADEM’s statement of basis for this Major Source Operating Permit (MSOP), VOCs at this facility are assumed to be emitted at a rate of more than 100 tons/year with the additional presumption that HAPs are emitted at less than 25 ton/year, but without testing or reporting requirements, how does ADEM know, in fact, how many tons/year of VOCs are actually emitted at this facility?

Given my stated concerns, I feel that a public hearing is warranted to allow me and my neighbors the opportunity to learn about and participate fully in ADEM’s public air quality permitting process.

I also respectfully request a response to my request.

Sincerely,
[your name]
[your address]