The belated discovery that ExxonMobil’s Torrance refinery belched about double the amount of sulfur dioxide the company initially reported for five years resulted in an $8.1 million fine in 2014 from Southern California’s air pollution watchdog that was never publicly disclosed, the Daily Breeze has learned.

The emissions — far above the annual target regulators had set for the plant — came from two unmetered lines leading to the refinery’s twin flares. When ExxonMobil discovered they were unmetered in 2013, the company itself reported the excess sulfur dioxide emissions to the South Coast Air Quality Management District.

The fine was part of an April 2014 settlement agreement over the unmetered lines reached by ExxonMobil and AQMD.

“Wow,” said Joe Lyou, president and chief executive officer of the nonprofit Coalition for Clean Air. Lyou is also a member of the AQMD’s governing board.

“I did not know they had been cited for unmetered lines,” Lyou said Friday. “Unfortunately, I’m not too surprised, and if it was an unintentional mistake then those do happen.

“Certainly it seems like there was a lot of emissions involved and that translates into air pollution that has public health impacts, so you have to be concerned about any violation that involves a large amount of emissions.”

In 2008 alone, the refinery emitted 128.5 tons of sulfur dioxide, according to revised figures ExxonMobil submitted to the AQMD.

That’s about double the 64.3 tons a year originally reported by the refinery, which at the time was comfortably within the refinery’s annual performance target of 82.1 tons.

But the new figure exceeded that performance target by about 57 percent.

To put the revised amount of emissions in perspective, in 2008 the AQMD calculated that sulfur dioxide from sources such as refineries and power plants in Southern California amounted to about 10 tons a day, according to the 2012 Air Quality Management.

So ExxonMobil’s revised emissions accounted to just over a third of a ton per day alone, a figure Lyou observed was “not insignificant” in comparison to the total for the region.

Health implications

Sulfur dioxide is a major component of smog, which can cause serious short- and long-term health effects, including respiratory problems and asthma.

Southern California leads the nation in deaths caused by smog, according to a study released in August by the American Thoracic Society, which focuses on pulmonary diseases and related afflictions.

ExxonMobil apologized in an email statement sent to the Daily Breeze on Friday by company spokeswoman Ashley Smith Alemayehu.

“During a July 2013 inspection, it was discovered that the refinery was inaccurately measuring the flow to the refinery flare resulting in underreporting of emissions,” she wrote. “The refinery reported the issue to regulatory authorities as soon as it was confirmed.

“We are committed to conducting our business in compliance with all applicable laws and regulations and regret the error,” Smith Alemayehu added. “ExxonMobil takes its environmental responsibilities seriously and worked with the South Coast AQMD to resolve the issue.”

Documents obtained

The grass-roots group FLARE — Families Lobbying Against Refinery Exposures — uncovered the civil penalty after filing a California Public Records Act request with the AQMD for more information about fines related to excessive emissions from the plant.

FLARE members said they were prompted to file the request for more information by a Daily Breeze story in July that reported ExxonMobil had paid $18.5 million in fines to the AQMD in the past two years for producing excess sulfur dioxide emissions from flaring.

That’s more than any other refinery in the region.

But the agency originally did not disclose that the bulk of the $18.5 million in fines was related to the settlement for the unmetered lines.

Frequent refinery flaring has become a community issue since PBF Energy assumed ownership of the plant in July. It was also the subject of a lengthy City Council meeting Tuesday.

The AQMD also recently announced that in addition to requiring PBF Energy to strengthen the refinery’s infrastructure, it was proposing new rules on all Southern California refineries.

Those rules will include increased financial penalties for excessive flaring and installation of improved air monitoring devices near refineries to provide data in real time.

The $8.1 million penalty AQMD fined the company for its unmetered lines in April 2014 is not included in the $18.5 million in fines for excessive flaring.

In addition, the AQMD fined ExxonMobil $5 million for violating emission regulations during last year’s massive explosion at the plant that crippled its ability to refine gasoline and its subsequent dirtier-than-normal startup.

About $2.8 million of that will be spent on projects intended to improve air quality in the community.

The $18.5 million in fines included $4 million ExxonMobil paid to the AQMD in April for exceeding emission limits during 2015 alone.

That larger figure also included $14.5 million in fees specified in the settlement agreement for the unmetered lines because ExxonMobil did not complete projects to offset air quality impacts caused by the additional pollution, said Derrick Alatorre, AQMD deputy executive officer via email.

That money will also be used for future projects to offset the air quality impacts of excessive flaring.

In contrast, the $8.1 million civil penalty in the settlement agreement for the unmetered lines was deposited into the agency’s operating budget.

Flare plan review

Meanwhile, because of the change in ownership of the plant, a revised flare minimization plan submitted by PBF Energy is being evaluated by AQMD staff and will be available for public review at the end of November.

“While the AQMD collected significant fees under its own refinery flares rule, we are concerned that the unmetered lines were able to go undetected for so many years,” FLARE said in a statement. “Were the millions assessed under the April 2014 settlement agreement enough to encourage reform? Given the recent April 2016 collection of an additional $4 million in capped fees, we encourage the community to advocate for changes to the refinery’s flare minimization plan.”

Kurt Weise, general counsel for AQMD, said in an interview that the amount of sulfur dioxide emissions that was allowed to escape through the unmetered lines were unprecedented in his 28 years in the industry.

“I’m not aware of another situation like this,” he said, adding that he didn’t know why it took ExxonMobil five years before company officials figured out emissions were going through the unmetered lines.

“We had no reason to believe it was deliberate,” he added.