Another day, another polluter

Total Petrochemicals USA, Inc., a petrochemical refinery in Port Arthur, TX, has managed to violate so many rules that the state has penalized it $529,300.

That's a big fine for not taking care of business -- ie., not doing such rudimentiary things such as "failing to maintain the exterior surface of the tank as white or aluminum" and "failing to repair twelve leaking fugitive components in the liquefied petroleum gas loading area" and -- get this -- "failing to equip three open-ended lines and valves with a cap, blind flange, plug or second valve." (The whole laundry list is HERE under #26 of Agreed Orders of the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality.

We guess Total Petrochemicals USA, a Houston-based American division of a bigger outfit headquartered in Brussels, Belgium, needs to get their people to brush up on Ned and the First Reader of Refinery Operations Maintenance, Vols. I, II, III and IV.