Case Concern Example 2007 2008

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    ~ LOUISIANABUCKETBRIGADEn Air. Justice. SustainabiJity.

    Case Concern Example: Incident Number 100103 - On October 11t\ 2007,concerned citizen Suzanne Kneale contacted LDEQ as to what she describedas a large yellow flickering flare and intermittent noises from Murphy Oilthat had been going on for 12 hours. She stated in her citizen complaint thatshe was asked by Murphy to be a "good" neighbor and not call the LDEQ.The LDEQ investigation found that Murphy had a compressor shut down bymechanical fault and that until the compressor was repaired, the plant flareda hydrogen rich recycle gas stream.Case Concern Example: Incident Number 99828 - From September 28thuntil October 1S\ 2007, Murphy released 23,988 pounds of sulfur dioxide inone incident. Murphy's letter to LDEQ states that the root cause of the. incident was a loose wire tripped the fuse supplying power to the valvesolenoid. Regardless of the cause of the release, it went on for 62 hours and45 minutes and was not reported by Murphy until October 19th, 2007.However, concerned citizens living in the area around Murphy knewsomething was wrong as evidenced by the fact that LDEQ received 4 citizencomplaints between September 29th_30th regarding this incident. The onlyinformation provided to these citizens by the LDEQ was that Murphyexperienced a supply problem with their purchased natural gas and thiscaused a flaring incident. The LDEQ report goes on to state that no humanerror was involved, no RQ's were exceeded, and that the incident was notreported by Murphy but rather by citizens.Citizen Complaint Descriptions from incident number 99828:"Nauseating, choking odor coming from Murphy Oil."

    " ... could see flare at Judge Perez in Arabi ...looks like, another broken pieceof equipment at Murphy."-September 29th, 2007

    "Large flaring.:. bursts of flames coming from Murphy Oil. ..black smokepouring out."-September 30th, 2007

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    n Air. Justice. Sustainability

    Case Concern Example: Incident # 111272: There were 2 citizen complaintsmade to LDEQ and 3 citizen complaints made to SPOC regarding this incident. The onlyinformation provided by LDEQ regarding this incident is that Matt Dobbins of MurphyOil stated that there was no problem with the facility and that he had surveyed theperimeter of the facility for noise or unusual odors around 8:30AM and did not observeany loud noises or odors. Even though 4 different citizens complained about horribleodors and noise coming from the refinery, no problem could be found. NOTE: Thecomplainant sent an email to SPOC regarding this incident in which she states MattDobbins informed her that Murphy had checked for noise at 8:30am at Jacob Drive anddid not observe anything. It also states that Suzanne checked the LDEQ onsite airmonitors for the Meraux and the Chalmette High air monitors and both showed very highH2S readings for 5am and 6am.

    Case Concern Example Incident # 111247: This was a citizen complaint madeto LDEQ and SPOC regarding flaring at Murphy. The LDEQ report states that Murphyhad received no odor complaints and no releases were verified but that they did have abrief flare for approximately 8-9 minutes. No other information is provided. I wonderwhy this is enough information for the LDEQ and why there is no information includedin the report as to why there was a flare in the first place. This is the exact samedescription given in report #110978 for an incident that was reported via citizencomplaint on 11/21 and for # 111211 which was reported on 12/2. These citizencomplaints involved reports of flaring. Both reports say they spoke with Matt Dobbins on12/4/2008. So, on 11/21 and 12/2 Murphy flared for 8-9 minutes? That seems to be thecase according to the LDEQ reports. NOTE: Citizen complaint # 111247 does notmention flaring, yet for the description of the investigation of the complaint, LDEQ usesthe verbatim description from the above mentioned citizen complaints regarding flaringto address this. LDEQ even received an extensive email from citizen Alice Avery inaddition to the citizen complaint she made and yet LDEQ put a generic, previously usedflaring description to address her complaint about chemicals stored in tanks at Murphy.This is an example of the LDEQ's unwillingness to thoroughly investigate and follow upon citizen complaints.

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