The Department of Justice and Environmental Protection Agency are expected to announce the terms of the settlement at 3 p.m. EDT (1900 GMT).
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A Tesoro spokeswoman at the Avon refinery could not be reached Monday for comment.
Two oil refineries have agreed to spend $415 million to install pollution-control equipment in six Western states to resolve Clean Air Act violations, the Justice Department said Monday. If you would like to discuss another topic, look for a relevant article.
The complaints had been filed by the EPA, the U.S. Justice Department, the states of Alaska and Hawaii and the Northwest Clean Air Act Agency in U.S. District Court in San Antonio, Texas, claiming the refineries had, starting in January 2006, repeatedly violated the federal Clean Air Act.
As of April 2016, the U.S. EPA had fined the Tesoro refinery in Anacortes almost $720,000 for alleged safety violations. The company said most of the emissions projects are complete or are in progress, with about $75 million of work left to do after the end of this year.
“We are dedicated to operating in a safe and responsible manner that reduces the impact on the environment”, said Keith Casey, Tesoro’s executive vice president of operations.
The new equipment set for installation at those facilities address pollution leak detection, fix and flaring prevention.
Once the new technology is installed, the government expects the total annual emissions reductions at the six refineries to total an estimated 773 tons of sulfur dioxide, 407 tons of nitrogen oxides, 1,140 tons of volatile organic compounds, 27 tons of hazardous air pollutants, 20 tons of hydrogen sulfide and the equivalent of 47,034 tons of carbon dioxide.
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The DOJ and EPA believe that the companies’ refineries exposed residents of Anacortes, along with five other Western locations, to substances in the air that might have heightened cancer risks and aggravated asthma problems in children. Doing so may result in civil and/or criminal penalties.
