Marathon Petroleum Company, Clean Air Act Violations, Ohio 2023

WASHINGTON – In a shocking turn of events, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the U.S. Government have announced an innovative environmental agreement with Ohio-based Marathon Petroleum Company that already has significantly reduced air pollution from all six of the company’s petroleum refineries.

Marathon Petroleum Company, allegedly violating the Clean Air Act by not properly maintaining its industrial flares, has agreed to state of the art controls on combustion devices known as flares and to a cap on the volume of waste gas it will send to its flares. When fully implemented, the agreement is expected to reduce harmful air pollution by approximately 5,400 tons per year and result in future cost savings for the company.

This agreement is a great victory for the environment and will result in cleaner and healthier air for the benefit of communities across the country in Illinois, Kentucky, Louisiana, Michigan, Ohio and Texas, said Ignacia S. Moreno, Assistant Attorney General for the Environment and Natural Resources Division of the U.S. Government. By spurring corporate ingenuity, this settlement will dramatically reduce emissions from all 22 flares at Marathon’s six refineries.

As part of the effort to reach this agreement, Marathon, under the direction and oversight of EPA, spent more than $2.4 million to develop and conduct pioneering combustion efficiency testing of flares and to advance the understanding of the relationship between flare operating parameters and flare combustion efficiency. In addition, beginning in 2009, Marathon installed equipment, such as flow monitors and gas chromatographs, to improve the combustion efficiency of its flares.

Marathon has spent approximately $45 million on this equipment and projects that it will spend an additional $6.5 million for this equipment. The company also will spend an as yet undetermined sum to comply with the flaring caps required in the consent decree. At the same time, Marathon indicates that the equipment it already has installed is saving it approximately $5 million per year through reduced steam usage and product recovery.

From 2008 to the end of 2011, the controls Marathon installed eliminated approximately 4720 tons per year of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) and 110 tons per year of hazardous air pollutants (HAPs) from the air. An additional 530 tons per year of VOCs and 30 tons per year of HAPs are projected to be eliminated in the future.

Marathon Petroleum Company, headquartered in Findlay, Ohio, has agreed to a consent decree filed today in the U.S. District Court in Detroit. The company has reportedly agreed to pay for violating the Clean Air Act by not properly maintaining its industrial flares.

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