Hyperion Oil Refinery

Explore, enjoy and protect the planet

Issues

Local SD Groups

SD Chapter

National Sierra Club

Draft Air Permit
Hyperion Oil Refinery & Power Plant
Contested Case Hearing

Letters about air permit

The EPA has issued a 23-page letter to SD DENR stating serious concerns about its draft air quality permit for the proposed Hyperion refinery.  The EPA said the permit's format is confusing for the public to read and understand.  It also addresses the lack of information about the Alberta tar sands Hyperion plans to use.  Read the EPA letter.

The National Park Service has issued a 6-page letter to DENR saying it is concerned that emissions from the refinery may impact the Missouri National Recreational River and the Lewis and Clark National Trail.  Read the National Park Service letter.

Save Union County, Citizens Opposed to Oil Pollution, and the Sierra Club have issued an 81-page letter stating the draft permit should not have been issued with a prior Environmental Impact Statement.  Read the letter of these groups.

Plains Justice has issued a 6-page letter summarizing concerns of Iowans who live close to the proposed site.  Read the Plains Justice letter.

To read other comments, go to the DENR website.

EPA: Global Warming Pollution
Threatens Public Health and Welfare

The Environmental Protection Agency today issued a finding that carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases represent a significant threat to public health and welfare. Today's "endangerment finding," based on tens of thousands of public comments and years of work by EPA's career staff and scientists, ends more than two years of uncertainty following the Supreme Court's landmark Massachusetts v. EPA decision and brings to a close the Bush Administration era of climate denial.  EPA now has both the authority and the obligation to regulate global warming pollution, with concrete action on motor vehicle emissions expected soon.  Read more.

Carbon dioxide emissions will more than double

South Dakota currently produces 15.1 million tons of carbon dioxide each year (EPA). Hyperion’s refinery will emit 19 million tons.  If the refinery is built, SD's carbon dioxide emissions will more than double.

Health effects

A 2007 study by the University of Texas School of Public Health “showed that children living within two miles of the heavily industrialized Houston ship channel have a 56% greater risk of contracting acute lymphocytic leukemia than children living more than 10 miles away.” Source: Chicago Tribune, July 29, 2007

"In the US, air pollution each year claims 70,000 lives, compared with the country's 45,000 traffic deaths." Lester Brown, Plan B 3.0

Young children, asthmatics, and elderly tend to be most affected.  In testimony before the EPA concerning the limit on ozone, ten studies were cited which found adverse health affects of ozone even at low concentations.

Other health issues may include respiratory problems (asthma, coughing, chest pain, bronchitis), skin irritations, nausea, itchy eyes, headaches, birth defects, leukemia, cancer. http://www.groundwork.org.za/oil_refineries.htm

“[T]he US has made substantial efforts towards controlling air pollution. However, studies demonstrate that even allowable limits of many of the pollutants result in significant negative health effects.”  Harvard Medical School Report (March 2002) entitled “OIL: A Life Cycle Analysis of Its Health and Environmental Effects.”

Do they have the competency?

Hyperion Resources has never built or operated an oil refinery.

South Dakota Department of Natural Resources (SD DENR) has never monitored an oil refinery.  Pierre Bernard, who worked for SD DENR for nine years, said "The level of environmental enforcement in this state scares the hell out of me. I know there will be no oversight from the state." Sioux City Journal, May 5, 2008.

The supreme irony

On April 18, 2008 T. Boone Pickens announced he would invest $10 billion in a wind farm in Texas. South Dakota, the windy state, is considering a $10B oil refinery, while Texas, an oil state, has an investor for a $10B wind farm. 

Greenpeace Canada is pleased to announce that Petropolis: Aerial Perspectives on the Alberta Tar Sands will make its North American debut at the Toronto International Film Festival this September.

Sour crude

Hyperion plans to pipe 400,000 barrels of sour crude from the tar sands in Canada. 400,000 barrels would create a tower with an acre base that is 52 feet high!  

This sour crude is both toxic and corrosive. It contains sulfur compounds (many of which smell like rotten eggs) and mercaptans (which smell like skunk odor). It has more impurities than sweet crude, including heavy metals. Sour crude is more difficult to refine than sweet crude.  Read about the characteristics of tar sands and an article about this dirty energy. 

Isn't it wise to ask how much of this will remain in our water, air, and soil?

Most destructive project on earth

See terrifying pictures of the vast destruction, and read report at Environmental Defence.  The reports says mining sour crude in Alberta is "the most destructive project on earth."  

Mining sour crude destroys pristine boreal forest (25,000 square miles at risk), produces massive amounts of greenhouse gasses (3–5 times more than drilling), requires 20% more energy than drilling, releases carcinogens into streams and water sources, creates shortage of water, results in vast toxic tailings lakes (11 square miles in size), and depletes natural gas resources for extraction.

"The Canadian Oil Boom" in the March 2009 National Geographic shows the physical damage to the environment and discusses the impacts on the Athabasca region.

Air Pollutants - at least 7,163 tons (14,326,000 pounds) per year for the next 50 years

Hyperion listed the following pollutants and the number of tons emitted per year in its permit application:

• carbon monoxide - 1,999 tons

• nitrogen oxides - 773 tons

• particulate matter <= 1 micrometer - 321 tons

• particulate matter <= 2.5 micrometers - 1,046 tons

• particulate matter <= 10 micrometers - 1,046 tons

• sulfur dioxide - 863 tons 

• volatile organic compounds - 473 tons

• hydrogen sulfide - 25 tons

• sulfuric acid mist - 80 tons

• hydrogen chloride - 49 tons

• hazardous air pollutants - 212 tons

• ammonia - 273 tons

This list does not include chemicals released during startups, shutdowns, and accidents which can amount to over a year's worth of pollutants in one incident.

Pollution air emissions "consistently 3-10 times higher than reported emission"

Refineries report their own emissions to the EPA, leading many to doubt the accuracy of EPA data.

In a Texas study done in 2000, researchers noted that actual "VOC/NOx ratios were consistently 3-10 times higher that reported emissions"  Another study done in 2006 "indicated that VOC emissions were 10-40 times higher than reported" by the refineries. (Houston Advanced Research Center, presentation by Alex Cuclis, July 17, 2007

"No studies have ever measured emissions to be less that reported" by the refineries.

Also a report by the House Government Reform Committee found that oil refineries "vastly underreport leaks from valves" and these fugitive emissions "could be eliminated if refineries complied with the requirements of the Clean Air Act."

Leaks/spills/fires/explosions

Hyperion will bring the sour crude in using a pipeline.  There will be pipelines to bring in other inputs and transport out products.  Pipelines can leak and refineries can have spills, fires, and explosions.

• February 2007: Ecology ordered Shell refinery to tackle leaking transfer pipelines  

• July 2007: Refinery spill in Coffeyville, Kansas  

• December 2007: Fire at a Minnesota refinery

Chemical industries often locate near a refinery

It is common to have one or more chemical plants next to a refinery because they will use some of the intermediate products of the refinery. Sour crude has high sulfur content so there could be sulfur plants next to the refinery and/or there could be up to 100 train cars filled with sulfur leaving the refinery each day.

These industries and trains can have accidents too. In August 2007, 47 workers in Coffeyville, Kansas were affected by an ammonia leak from a nitrogen fertilizer plant next to the refinery.

Best Available Control Technology (BACT)?

Hyperion says it will use the best available control technology (BACT). However, there are several levels of BACT. LAER (lowest achievable emission rate) is truly the "most stringent"  but Hyperion will use PSD (prevention of significant deterioration) which is not as stringent as LAER. Since South Dakota has clean air (making us an attainment state), EPA requires only PSD not LAER. Hyperion will save money by using PSD and will emit more air pollution than if they were required to use LAER.

EPA weakens requirements

“The EPA has failed to improve monitoring and reporting of toxic air pollution. In fact, EPA has moved in the opposite direction. In 2004, EPA actually adopted new rules that weaken air emission reporting requirements. Because EPA continues to knowingly allow industrial facilities to underreport toxic emissions, the public remains in the dark about the true extent of their exposure.”  Environmental Integrity Project 

Will Hyperion get your tax dollars?

IGCC expert, Stephen Jenkins testified under oath that the two American IGCC's for coal plants "received significant amounts of co-funding from the federal government." (Before Florida Public Service Commission, Jan. 29, 2007)

Hyperion is also asking senators to help them get a governmental loan guarantee since they are using IGCC for their power plant. 

Jenkins also testified that IGCC technology won’t be ready for 6-8 years, has limited performance and emissions guarantees, and that commercial-scale CO2 capture and storage has not been demonstrated.  

As of October 2007, five IGCCs for coal plants have been cancelled, four have been put on hold, two have gone bankrupt and been abandoned.  Read more about the uncertainties of IGCC.

Related websites

Save Union County is an organization of Union County residents opposed to the refinery.

Elk Point Gorilla is a website with many regional news stories, editorials, area and option maps, info about option agreements, and a message board.

Refinery Reform is an organization working to clean up America's refineries.

The Environmental Defense Fund works on the most serious environmental problems.