Riverkeeper, Scenic Hudson to Sue Oil Transport Company for Violating Clean Air Act

A broad coalition including Riverkeeper, Scenic Hudson, Albany County, a public housing tenants association, and other environmental and conservation organizations intend to file a federal court lawsuit against Global Companies for failure to have a valid Clean Air Act permit to operate its crude-by-rail terminal in Albany’s South End.

The issue for Riverkeeper and Scenic Hudson is the danger of crude oil shipments to the Hudson River — whether by train or barge.

"With very little public awareness and no study of environmental impacts, the oil industry has made the Hudson Valley into one arm of a dangerous “virtual pipeline” for crude oil that snakes thousands of miles by rail, barge and ship from oil fields in North Dakota, Canada and elsewhere, to refineries on both coasts," Riverkeeper says on its website.

"The New York State segment of this “virtual pipeline” primarily moves a particularly volatile crude oil by rail from the Bakken shale formation of North Dakota and nearby states and provinces, where oil production has doubled in three years, to the Port of Albany. There, billions of gallons of crude oil can be offloaded onto barges and ships destined for East Coast refineries. Additional trains loaded with crude oil destined for refineries to the south continue along the west side of the Hudson River, through communities in Greene, Ulster, Orange and Rockland counties. Some of these trains carry Canadian tar sands crude bitumen, and there are proposals that would facilitate the shipment of heavy crudes like this by barge as well.

"The potential human and environmental impacts of this “virtual pipeline” are anything but virtual. The Hudson River, its tributaries and every community along the river or the freight rail line are at risk from spills and fires."

The coalition’s letter to Global Thursday notes that the Clean Air Act permit for the Albany facility expired on March 2, 2016.

The New York State Department of Environmental Conservation notified Global in September that the company’s request to renew the permit was being denied and required Global to submit a new permit application with substantial additional information concerning the environmental and public health impacts of crude oil operations at the Albany facility.

The coalition claims that because Global’s expired permit was not renewed and it has not yet been issued a new permit, the company has been illegally operating the Albany facility since September. The Clean Air Act prohibits the operation of large air pollution sources like the Global facility without a valid air pollution permit, the coalition said in its letter.

The Global facility has been identified by DEC as a source of air pollution, including emissions of benzene, a known human carcinogen. Recent air monitoring in Albany’s South End revealed dangerously high levels of benzene in the area.

The coalition said local residents have complained for years about a variety of adverse respiratory effects and other health impacts from breathing polluted air. The Ezra Prentice Homes, a public housing development, is located at the fenceline of the Global facility, and is home to over 200 children. The Giffen Elementary School is located a few blocks from the Global facility.

“As the battle to protect the Hudson River and surrounding communities from the devastation of crude oil transport in the region rages on, we will not sit idly by as Global violates the Clean Air Act in new ways," said Riverkeeper Staff Attorney Abigail Jones. "Riverkeeper remains committed to reducing the risk crude oil poses to public health and our environment.”

The coalition’s notice letter was sent by Earthjustice on behalf of Albany County, the Ezra Prentice Homes Tenants Association, Sierra Club, Center for Biological Diversity, Riverkeeper, Inc., Scenic Hudson, Natural Resources Defense Council and Catskill Mountainkeeper.

The same coalition previously filed a federal court lawsuit against Global alleging that the company failed to obtain a necessary Clean Air Act permit when it significantly expanded operations in 2012. That lawsuit is pending.

Image via Riverkeeper