Today, July 21, 2022, at approximately 4:30 a.m., the Delaware City Refining Company experienced an outage at the carbon monoxide boiler on the fluid coking unit at the Delaware City refinery. The Delaware Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Control has learned that the outage caused excess emissions of carbon monoxide (CO), sulfur dioxide, hydrogen sulfide, ammonia, hydrogen cyanide and particulate matter. DNREC continues to monitor the situation at the refinery, and does not expect the release to impact public health and safety.
While the refinery’s excess emissions remain visible into the afternoon, the DNREC Division of Air Quality monitoring station near Delaware City has not shown elevated levels of particulate matter resulting from the CO boiler outage. DNREC is continuing to assess and monitor the situation as the Delaware City facility works to bring the CO boiler back online – projected for early afternoon today.
DNREC also is investigating the refinery’s unpermitted release of pollutants and will take appropriate follow-up action, to include enforcement if warranted.
