CITGO guilty of criminal clean air act violations

A federal jury in Corpus Christi has found CITGO Petroleum Corp., and its subsidiary, CITGO Refining and Chemicals Co., guilty of two felony criminal violations of the Clean Air Act. CITGO was convicted on two counts of operating two huge open top tanks, without installing the proper emission controls required by state and federal regulations at its Corpus Christi East Plant Refinery. Virtually no oil should have been found in the two tanks that were part of the refinery wastewater treatment system if the tanks were being operated as designed. CITGO learned after the two tanks were built, that large volumes of oil were accumulating in the two tanks in violation of state and federal regulations. For nearly 10 years, CITGO skimmed oil continuously from the surface of tanks and did not install proper emission control equipment to prevent or limit the emission of volatile organic compounds from the tanks. Hundreds of thousands of barrels of oil were skimmed from the two tanks over the years. More than 4.5 million gallons of oil were discovered in the tanks during an unannounced inspection by the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality, TCEQ, in March 2002. Odor complaint investigations by TCEQ determined the tanks were an ongoing source of emissions into the surrounding community. CITGO and environmental manager Philip Vrazel were indicted by a federal grand jury in Corpus Christi on August 9, 2006. The indictment charged them with a total of 10 counts of violations of the Clean Air Act and the Migratory Bird Treaty Act. Vrazel and the company will be tried in July for the Migratory Bird Treaty Act counts. Sentencing on the Clean Air Act charges is scheduled for Oct. 18, 2007. CITGO faces fines of up to $500,000 or twice the gross economic gain, whichever is greater, and five years of probation.