Table View locals challenge Chevron

Cape Town 080206. As of today Chevron Refinery will not be able to supply consumers with liquefied petroleum gas and the sales of ship fuel will be suspended as the refinery says it cannot run because of the "unavailability of stable power supply". Picture Henk Kruger/Cape Times

Cape Town 080206. As of today Chevron Refinery will not be able to supply consumers with liquefied petroleum gas and the sales of ship fuel will be suspended as the refinery says it cannot run because of the "unavailability of stable power supply". Picture Henk Kruger/Cape Times

Published Jul 29, 2013

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Cape Town - The Table View Residents Association, fearing more sulphur dioxide (SO2) emissions near their homes, is tackling Chevron over what residents fear are plans to increase the amount of crude oil processed at the Milnerton refinery every day, by 15 percent.

Chevron has applied to the City of Cape Town for a renewal of its atmospheric emission licence, which allows it to emit 22 tons of SO2 a day.

According to a report by the oil company last year, it emitted an average of 15.2 tons a day in 2011. The residents association, with help from the Legal Resources Centre, is objecting to some aspects of the application.

The association says Chevron seems to want to increase its output of 100 000 barrels of crude oil a day to 115 000 – a 15 percent increase.

The association is also concerned that in spite of pending regulations, which are to set stringent limits – the first of which will come into effect as soon as 2015 – on how much SO2 refineries could emit, Chevron has again sought authorisation to emit 22 tons a day.

Chevron confirmed that its Milnerton refinery had a capacity of 100 000 barrels per day; however, in its licence application, it lists both its “maximum permitted consumption rate” and its “design consumption rate” as 115 000 barrels a day.

In a submission, the residents association said Chevron was “in effect requesting an increase” in its allowed crude oil output.

Association member Andy Birkinshaw, who deals with air pollution, said a 15 percent increase in production also meant an increase in emissions. “More emissions means an even greater negative impact on our health,” he said.

The association is asking for the company’s SO2 emissions to be capped at 8.6 tons a day, which has at times, been achieved at the refinery over the last two years.

Birkinshaw said that at certain refineries abroad, Chevron processed up to 250 000 barrels a day and and emitted just over five tons of SO2.

This, he said, was because these countries had stricter laws, compelling the company to make use of advanced equipment and the best possible practice.

“If we put in strict policies, they will have to follow and they’ve done so elsewhere,” Birkinshaw said.

“They’re polluting and taking all the profit while we, the residents, are having to pay for clinic and hospital bills.”

Chevron did not answer questions posed by the Cape Times about the concerns of the residents association, or whether it planned to increase its production level.

It said only that its licence application was “a legal process and needs to be allowed to take its course through the authorities” and that information requested by interested parties would be addressed through this process.

A 2003 study by the UCT Lung Institute showed that children in the city’s northern suburbs had unusually high levels of asthma and allergies, associated with being exposed to petrochemical emissions.

Of the 3 162 children – aged 11 to 14, from 17 schools in the area – who formed part of the study, nine percent had to bring asthma inhalers to school, 33 percent said they’d had wheezing or whistling in the chest in the previous 12 months and 35 percent said their chests had sounded wheezy during or after exercise in the past 12 months.

Legal Resources Centre attorney Angela Andrews said emission levels had been set in 2010 for refineries in terms of the National Environmental Management: Air Quality Act.

Although these standards were now subject to amendments, the limits required that by 2015, refineries would be limited to emitting a daily average of around 11.2 tons of SO2 a 100 000 barrels of crude oil a day.

Further limits would be applicable in 2020, permitting daily averages of 5.5 tons a day. - Cape Times

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