HollyFrontier Corp. has agreed to pay a $153,000 penalty for faulty emergency management planning and reporting at its Cheyenne refinery, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency announced Monday.
The announcement was made as part of a settlement between the refinery and the government. EPA said it hoped the deal would bring the facility into line with safety requirements and help local emergency responders by improving transparency surrounding chemicals used at the refinery.
EPA inspectors found the refinery had not met requirements for risk management for facilities housing large quantities of flammable chemical mixtures and hydrogen fluoride.
The Cheyenne refinery failed to follow internal pipe inspection procedures and provided inadequate training to employees on how to operate processing equipment, EPA said.
The facility was also cited for its reporting to the government. The company miscalculated chemicals reported to EPA's Toxic Release Inventory and did not file reports for chlorine, cobalt compounds and molybdenum trioxide used at the facility.
That information is used to help local emergency personnel responding to an incident at the facility, EPA said.
"Risk management plans and the Toxic Release Inventory protect communities by making sure that facilities provide transparent information and have procedures in place to prevent and respond to potential releases of the chemicals they use,” EPA’s regional enforcement program director Suzanne Bohan said in a statement.
The company has corrected all violations, said HollyFrontier spokeswoman Julia Heidenreich.
"Frontier Refining is committed to minimizing the environmental impacts in communities where we operate and live," she said.
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