$4 Million Deal Puts End To Citgo's Environmental Lawsuit

U.S. Attorney General’s Office filled on November 10 a complaint in the District Court for Northern Illinois in Chicago on behalf of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). In the 95-page suit, Citgo Petroleum Corporation is accused of violating the following federal acts protecting the environment: The Clean Air Act, the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation and Liability Act and the Emergency Planning and Community Right-to-Know Act.

The alleged violations, which date from 2004 to the present, according to Cook County Record, happened at the Lemont petroleum refinery. This suburban refinery, one of the three plants owned by Citgo and part of which reaches into Romeoville, has operated since 1970. While the company boasts it's proud of the plant’s “10 year record as one of the safest complex refineries in the country,” the EPA says otherwise.

EPA held Citgo hasn’t run the plant with “good air pollution control practices for minimizing emissions,” including failure to operate “continuous emissions monitoring systems.” Citgo allegedly allowed significant emissions of extremely dangerous substances, such as sulfur dioxide and hydrogen sulfide gases (both very toxic for humans). In addition, Citgo failed to obtain certain permits and to report the hazardous emissions to the state and local agencies.

Since the day the complaint was filled, federal regulators and Citgo have worked out an agreement, in which the oil giant has agreed to spend $4 million in costs of reducing the discharge of air pollution from the refinery, fixing the problems pointed out by the EPA and civil penalty.