Maine environmental regulators near finalizaton of rules to reduce South Portland oil tank emissions

Are emissions just unpleasant smells or causing diseases like asthma or cancer?

Are emissions just unpleasant smells or causing diseases like asthma or cancer?

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Are emissions just unpleasant smells or causing diseases like asthma or cancer?

In the 20 months since the Maine State Legislature passed and Governor Janet Mills signed a law requiring closer, more frequent monitoring of emissions from oil tanks in South Portland, the state's Department of Environmental Protection has been working on the new regulations.

A public hearing by the Environmental and Natural Resources Committee on Wednesday reviewed the proposed new rules, including plans to inspect the tanks quarterly, to install new air quality monitors on tank property (known as "fence line monitoring"), to reduce fumes that evaporate from the tanks by requiring owners to make tank roofs adjustable (or "floating") and to insulate heated tanks to keep their temperature consistent.

"This is a really urgent situation, and we really can't have any delays, any change in the proposed rules now," Sen. Anne Carney, a committee member who sponsored the 2021 law, said in an interview. "We need this information now, so we can start to take steps to protect the public health."

About 15 people testified in person or remotely, and no one opposed the new regulations.

"I think people have a right not to be harmed by industrial pollution," said Susan Henderson, a South Portland resident. "These chemicals are not good for people."

Todd Martin, Grassroots Outreach Coordinator for the Natural Resources Council of Maine, said, "We have no control over air pollution in other states, but what we can control is the air pollution that originates in our state."

With approximately 100 tanks operating above ground, many near homes or in sight of South Portland High School and across from Kaler School, an elementary school, the city's 27,000 residents worry about health risks.

Carney said, "What I'm hearing from constituents, I get emails from parents saying their kids' throats are burning while they are on the playground during recess at Kaler School. When people are who are watching sports games at the high school are experiencing the burning caused by the fumes."

Jeff Crawford, Director, Bureau of Air Quality, Maine Department of Environmental Protection, presented a summary of the pending regulations.

A bill before the committee could result in their implementation as early as this spring or summer.

DEP has previously detected elevated levels of two carcinogenic chemicals with air monitors deployed around South Portland at various distances from the tank farms -- acrolein and naphthalene.

"They're both hazardous pollutants, so they could cause, besides cancer, they could cause neurologic or other effects," Crawford said in an interview.

When asked if available data has been sufficient to prove a correlation between tanks and those pollutants, Crawford said, "No. That's the problem."

Dan Walker, a lawyer for Massachusetts-based Global Partners, one of six tank-owning companies, questioned the value of on-site monitoring and suggested it be less frequent.

Walker said to the committee, "Give the DEP the authority and the flexibility to adjust as they see fit. Continuous monitoring is not low cost. It's very expensive, especially in perpetuity."

In 2019, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency announced two of the six companies that own multiple tanks, Global Partners and Maine-founded Sprague Resources, were exceeding caps on permitted emissions in violation of the Clean Air Act.

Walker said, "Our client, Global, they’re not afraid of what the results are going to be."

The tanks are permitted to emit 700 tons of volatile organic compounds (VOC's) and other gases every year, but the amounts thought to be emitted are only company estimates based on tank volume, activity, and temperatures, all calculated using national industry standards approved by federal and state regulators.

Abby Huntoon, of Protect South Portland, told the committee, "The industry has been allowed to use unreliable self-reporting based on estimates from an industry-created formula."

Once the new rules are in effect, it could still take three years to collect enough data to determine whether South Portland's air is safe to breathe.

"We really need three years of data to do it," Crawford said. "Over a three-year period, we can get a good average."

Carney said, "The question is, ‘What is the air quality around these tanks?’ And the only way to answer that is to test the air and find out and gather the data and then take the protective steps we need to take for the community."