I finished a report to the Energy Facility Site Evaluation Council in response to the air permit for the Vancouver oil terminal. One aspect is that the tank farm design isn’t close to best available control technology. They aren’t installing pollution control equipment on the storage tank vents, simply to save money.
This has direct bearing on the health of the Port of Vancouver staff at the port offices. My analysis shows the concentration of benzene in the air there will be well over 16 times the legal limit in light summer breeze, and just above the legal limit in a 20 mph wind. Benzene causes cancer and many other illnesses.
It will be unsafe for the staff to be in their offices all summer long — not to mention how much it will stink like crude.
Tesoro estimates the “incremental ambient impact” for benzene at 67 percent of the legal limit, so even they say they will just barely squeeze under the legal wire on an annual basis. The port staff are being duped.
