"Motiva" needs to get "mo-tee-va-ted"

There's a petroleum refinery over in The Golden Triangle that people there oughta be aware of.

It's called Motiva Enterprises LLC and it appears they're runnin a slipshod operation.

In the latest issue of the Texas Register, under the "agreed orders" of the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality, there comes word that Motiva has been penalized $225,338 for various crimes against nature -- failing to comply with the permitted emissions limits for nitrogen oxide; failing to comply with permitted emissions limits for particulate matter; failing to perform quarterly opacity observations of all stationary vents; failing to maintain the scrubbing solution at or above a pH of seven; failing to conduct daily caustic hydrogen chloride (HC1) testing at the CRU4 Caustic HC1 Scrubber and operate it in accordance with the operation, maintenance, and monitoring plan ... and so forth. [Link]

For these reasons, Motiva, owned by Royal Dutch Shell and Saudi Aramco(the Saudi kingdom's national oil company), wins our weekly "Polluter the Week" award, which is given more or less weekly on an intermittent basis.

That's not a good way to start Spring, which commenced on March 20. The people of the Golden Triangle deserve better.