Accident at Bayway Refinery – “Controlled Burns” Release Unknown Toxic Air Pollution

ConocoPhillips Bayway refinery (Linden, NJ)

According to today’s Star Ledger AP report,  “flames are shooting out of the towers” of the ConocoPhillips refinery in Linden, NJ.

According to the Company, a power outage occured during routine maintenance. The AP story says no workers were injured, but does not even mention the environmental releases of toxic chemicals that occured during the accident.

We wrote about some of the risks from that plant in this post – watch this video of ABC TV Eyewitness News Investigative Report on repeat violations at Bayway.

There had to be toxic air emissions as a result of this incident.

Obviously, a detailed accident investigation report is required. However, even before detailed investigaion is conducted, reporters need to ask US EPA and NJ DEP about facility monitoring data and expected enforcement response and penalties for air pollution violations.