Sierra Club Requests Public Hearing on Delaware City Refinery

The Delaware Chapter of the Sierra Club is requesting a public hearing on changes to the Delaware City Refinery air emissions permits. Without a demonstrable increase in capacity, the facility is requesting permission to increase emissions of substances such as sulfuric acid and lead, as well as overall particulate matter and volatile organic compounds (VOCs).  This facility came under scrutiny by the media in October 2011 for repeated hydrogen cyanide releases noticed by our Office Administrator and Alerts subscriber Teri. 

Full-Text of the Sierra Club's Request to the Secretary of the DNREC: 

http://delaware.sierraclub.org/sites/delaware.sierraclub.org/files/documents/2013/02/2013-02-18-refinery-title-v-permit.pdf

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Satellite Image Shows Heat From Chevron Drill Rig Fire, Offshore Nigeria

K.S. Endeavor jackup drilling rig burning off Nigeria's coast on January 16, 2012. Photo courtesy Chevron.

We've been following reports of a drill rig on fire off the coast of Nigeria, working for Chevron in the Funiwa field. We've also been collecting satellite imagery of the site.  Yesterday's MODIS images had a big data gap right over this area, so we didn't get a chance to see this until today. Here's what it looked like this morning from space, captured by NASA's MODIS sensor on the Terra satellite, in the 7-2-1 rendering that includes the mid-infrared wavelengths.  There is a bright red dot located approximately where we think the rig was working (we could use a more precise location if anyone has it).  This indicates strong emission from the middle-infrared part of the spectrum (band 7), typical for very hot fires:

Detail of MODIS 7-2-1 infrared image along Niger Delta coastline, January 17, 2012.  Bright red spot marks inferred location of the burning K.S. Endeavor jackup drill rig.

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