Refinery Reforms National Campaign ACTION 2004 to Clean up Refinery Pollution and Injustice

Refinery pollution impacts have often been considered "toxic hot spot" problems in Texas and Louisiana where 50% are concentrated. But refineries are creating a national public health crisis. In thirty-six states and 125 U.S. cities, more than 67 million people breathe air polluted by refineries.

• For years, a vast majority of the nation's refineries have evaded regulatory scrutiny, including compliance with basic provisions of the Clean Air Act.
  
  
• Many refineries are concentrated in heavily populated urban areas and disproportionately impact low-income and minority communities.
  
  
• Refineries are the nation's major source of tons of toxic volatile organic compounds, like cancer-causing benzene, and chemicals which cause asthma and childhood development problems.
  
  
• Most refinery toxic air pollution is from product leaks in equipment not smokestacks. Technology to prevent these leaks has been widely available for decades, but oil companies refuse to invest in cleaner technologies.
  
  
• Refineries are also a source of large chemical releases during fires, explosions, upsets and spills. During these accidents, many thousands of pounds of dangerous chemicals can be released in a short period of time. These dangerous spills often dump chemicals into the communities around refineries causing health problems.
  
  
• Under proposals now being considered by the Bush administration, refineries will be able to dramatically increase their emissions by avoiding requirements for pollution controls.