Port Arthur (March 3, 2020) – TPC Group, in consultation with local, state and agency partners, has secured the Port Neches Operations site and continues to focus on activities to minimize impact to environment while preserving the safety of workers and the community, and bring response efforts safely to an end.
Situation Update: To date, significant progress has been made with 96 percent of the high purity butadiene and more than 50 percent of 1,3 butadiene containing material safely transferred offsite. This will be followed by the transfer of crude C4, raffinate, polyblend and other process materials to further secure the site.
As routine activities resume as part of the de-inventory process, periodic flaring and the use of water vapor suppression may be visible to the community. The use of a flare is a normal part of a shutdown or start up process and helps ensure that facilities are environmentally sound. Water suppression will continue to be used as a precautionary mitigation measure should stationary and handheld monitors detect VOCs on-site during response efforts. TPC Group air monitoring coverage, conducted by contracted environmental response specialists, continues to include 10 stationary monitors at the fence line, 17 stationary monitors inside the fence line and 15 roaming air monitors inside the fence line. Based on the continued ‘non-detect’ readings in the community and the continued monitoring at the fence line, the radius of community monitoring is focused on the site perimeter. Monitoring teams will remain ready to respond in the community should there be a need.
Neighboring industrial plants are now up and operating. TPC Group Port Neches Operations continues to make good progress toward the goal of restoring terminal operations capabilities requiring dock, tank farm and pipeline, in the first half of the year to expand the Company’s ability to serve industry customers throughout facility recovery and restoration.
Information Resources: TPC Group will continue to manage inquiries via the official response website at www.portnechesresponse.com, as well as through established social media channels on Facebook at www.facebook.com/PortNechesUC and Twitter (@PortNechesUC).
Residents are also encouraged to register for updates from the Southeast Texas Alerting Network (STAN). Call 1-877-843-7826 (toll-free) anytime to hear important alerts and notifications, or visit www.thestan.com to register for notifications.