The US Environmental Protection Agency ( EPA ) issued five final licenses under the Clean Water Act for bulk oil storage facilities located along the Chelsea River (also known as Chelsea Creek ). The reissued licenses direct the facilities to take measures that limit discharges of rainwater and other non-rail water that can be legally discharged on the Chelsea River and specify management practices aimed at control pollution of installations. Limits and controls will ensure that discharges do not impair water quality, harm plants and animals that live on the river or affect people's health. The licenses issued by the EPA consider the impacts of climate change, especially the increased severity of storms and floods.
These licenses of the "National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System" ( NPDES ) issued by EPA are for the five facilities that receive, store and distribute petroleum products, such as gasoline, diesel, aviation fuel and fuel oil, and replace the licenses issued in 2014. Petroleum products and additives are received in large quantities by ship or barge at sea ship docks and transferred to above-ground storage tanks located within the tank areas of each installation. Petroleum products are transported off-site by truck - tank, ship or pipeline.
The five facilities are: Global Companies, LLC Terminal in Revere; Gulf Oil Terminal in Chelsea; Irving Oil Revere Terminal in Revere; Chelsea Sandwich Terminal in Chelsea; and Sunoco Logistics East Boston Terminal in Boston.
"EPA has worked hard to update these clean water licenses to ensure that facilities manage water flow using the best methods to protect health and the local environment, especially as the impacts of climate change increase this challenge ", said the Regional Administrator of EPA New England David W. Cash. "These updated licenses are based on sound science and politics and are designed to promote justice and equity, providing tangible public health benefits to local residents who have been overwhelmed by environmental concerns for a long time. In addition to issuing these licenses,the EPA will continue to work with partners to analyze and help mitigate the cumulative impacts faced by communities with environmental justice concerns."
These licenses require facilities to adapt and mitigate impacts caused by the climate, such as floods, rising sea levels and more intense storms and stormy tides, in the operations of the facilities. Licenses require each facility to develop a "Multiple Water Pollution Prevention Plan" ( SWPPP ), including an assessment each year, using updated precautionary data, like the Massachusetts Coastal Flood Risk Model, the possible impacts of climate change on pollutant discharges from your facility. Based on the annual assessment, each installation must implement control measures, using Good Management Practices that minimize the risk of impacts from major storms and floods and take into account dry weather floods,including floods caused by rising sea levels.
To achieve better environmental and public health protection, licenses also include stricter effluent limits based on water quality, new monitoring requirements for certain parameters based on deficiencies for designated uses of the Chelsea River and improved requirements for continuous environmental monitoring, including a requirement that the facilities carry out a bioevaluation of benthic resources and sediment quality.
EPA's work in developing reissued licenses included greater reach for neighboring communities, provided in several languages when licenses were issued as drafts for public commentary. There was a significant public contribution asking the EPA to mitigate the adverse effects of various environmental stressors on affected communities, including Chelsea, Boston and Revere. These impacts – including water and air pollution – are being borne by needy and overburdened communities and, in addition, are being exacerbated by the extreme climate precipitated by climate change. EPA's continued supervision will ensure that facilities comply with their licenses to protect human health and the environment from nearby communities with environmental justice concerns.
The EPA intends to continue to engage with community members to address concerns raised about these licenses. To better understand these complex cumulative impacts, based on the EPA's recent announcement of a new national office dedicated to advancing environmental justice and civil rights, EPA is working with partners to explore an initiative and investigate these cumulative impacts on affected communities. This work requires the creation of a process that is built and led by community actors.
At the same time, the EPA has issued a broader political structure around these licenses, outlining its approach to analyzing and considering cumulative impacts, as appropriate, future licensing and planning actions. If this analysis generates "new information" identifying the environmental impacts that the EPA can address, the EPA will consider reopening these licenses to propose appropriate modifications or use the information to inform the next licensing round.EPA also undertakes to scrutinize a cumulative impact analysis for evidence of disparate treatment or disparate impact in violation of Title VI of the Civil Rights Act – and commits to a long-term planning initiative to help mitigate the full range of adverse impacts in communities with environmental justice problems.
The Chelsea River is an urban tidal river that flows from the mouth of Mill Creek, between Chelsea and Revere, to Boston's Inner Harbor, between East Boston and Chelsea. The river is classified by the Commonwealth of Massachusetts as a Class SB body of water, which means that the quality of the river water must be able to withstand fluttering, swimming, fishing, boating and a healthy community of fish and aquatic life. The Chelsea River is considered "harmed" because it does not support these uses due to pollutants such as ammonia, dissolved oxygen and petroleum hydrocarbons and conditions such as turbidity, odor and garbage / debris.
EPA is also making efforts in transparency and keeping the public informed about these licenses. In their SWPPP, each licensee must present the factual basis and analysis of the actions taken in sufficient detail to allow the EPA, the public or a qualified independent person assesses the reasonableness of the decision. The updated licenses are available on this website: https://www.epa.gov/npdes-permits/chelsea-river-bulk-petroleum-storage-facilities-npdes-permits. The SWPPPs for each installation will be published on this website each year, together with the summary of the discharge monitoring data. Additional information is also available to help the public sign up for notifications about any violations and ways to contact the EPA with questions and concerns.
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