US files $4.2-million settlement for fire, explosion at former South Philadelphia refinery

From the Oil & Gas Journal Oct 8, 2024 The US government filed a $4.2 million settlement with Philadelphia Energy Solutions Refining and Marketing LLC (PES) for Clean Air Act penalties related to the June 21, 2019, fire and explosion at its former South Philadelphia refinery.

The fire and explosion at the 335,000 b/d refining complex prompted a temporary shelter-in-place for area residents and injured five refinery workers (OGJ Online, June 21, 2019). PES and its subsidiaries filed for Chapter 11 federal bankruptcy protection a month later (OGJ Online, July 22, 2019).

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) said the settlement, filed in US Bankruptcy Court, represents the largest Clean Air Act 112(r) penalty it has ever imposed for a single incident. That section of the CAA requires infrastructure owners and operators to ensure that regulated and other “extremely hazardous substances” are managed safely, EPA said in a press release. 

The agency alleges that PES violated the rule that compels plants to identify and assess the hazards posed by regulated substances, develop an accident-prevention program to reduce the risk of accidental releases, and create an emergency-response program. 

“The company violated these requirements by, among other things, failing to ensure that its refining operations, particularly the hydrofluoric acid unit, were designed, built and operated in accordance with recognized and generally accepted good engineering practices,” EPA notes. The settlement marks EPA’s final settlement with PES, the agency said.

The settlement stems from the 2019 explosion and fire at the Pemex Philadelphia Refinery which included a release of HF. (The HF fortunately caused no injuries itself as it was evidently destroyed in the explosion). (See our report Wake-up Call: Refinery Disaster in Philadelphia from July 2023 for more information about the disaster. It gives details of the sequence of events, and points out that the safeguards to prevent an HF release they had in place DID NOT FUNCTION.)