Question: Chevron is up for a permit renewal again (under title 5 of the Clean Air Act), we have a 4800 page report on the company, how can we get through it and pull out the valuable info?

stevie is asking a question about air-quality
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by stevie | with CherokeeConcernedCitizens January 04, 2021 21:18 | #25409


Hello! This is one of the questions we're looking for support on related to this post. Any ideas or resources you can share would be greatly appreciated.



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@stevie @cherokeeconcernedcitizens. What kind of support are you looking for?

I would like to build skills at reading permitting documentation and have roughly two weeks available. I could spend a day going through this document if you wanted to share it and do a quick phone call about what specifically you are looking to pull out.

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If the offer still stands, that would be great! The draft permit for renewal is not available yet. We were told it would be up for public comment soon, but it is already five years pass expiration. All we have right now is the current permit (attached).
Chevron_Air_Permit.pdf

There is a new construction permit that can be found online at https://opc.deq.state.ms.us/ensearchonline/ai-info/2299.

I found this guide to be an excellent resource for reviewing permits. It doesn't help as if you don't understand the science (which is where we very much need support) but if gives a good idea about what should be included in every permit. http://www.cacwny.org/docs/Title%20V%20-%20The%20proof%20is%20in%20the%20permit.PDF


When is your deadline for this?

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There is no deadline at the moment. The draft permit has not been released yet. We were told that it should be soon. It has been expired for five years.


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I can see if other environmental toxicologists would be willing to volunteer on this with me. What is the time frame for the review/when is this needed?

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That is great! I don't know about a timeframe. The draft permit for renewal is not available yet. We were told it would be up for public comment soon, but it is already five years passed expiration. So any help would be great! All we have right now is the current permit (attached). Chevron_Air_Permit.pdf

There is a new construction permit that can be found online at https://opc.deq.state.ms.us/ensearchonline/ai-info/2299. I do plan to submit a public records request soon for the application and other important documents, such as their deviation reports.


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@kgradow1 @DanielleS - Wow! super stars! @stevie and I will touch base tomorrow and get back to your both as soon as possible. This is great news.

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From Stuart Lynn, on twitter: https://twitter.com/Stuart_Lynn/status/1346550931522019328

Hypothes.is might be a good choice to allow collaborative annotation https://web.hypothes.is . Are you looking to do annotation of the report for extraction or some more defined data extraction from the text (which might needs some NLP, regex or ML)?

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Ive reached out tho this person before too.. he has lots of experience and was super helpful. http://www.sagady.com/

@jjcreedon - do you know if their contact information is current? I just went to their website and it appears to be out of date (404 error message).

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Try this: Alex J. Sagady & Associates 657 Spartan Ave., East Lansing, MI 48823 (517) 332-6971 (517) 332-8987 (fax) ajs@sagady.com


Thank you! I will reach out.


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Besides get a lawyer who specializes in this information;

Look for Section 12 of the PSD.

It contains the summary information for criteria pollutants.

There's many things you can do with the summary information, but one of the immediate things you can do is plug those numbers into the BENMAP-CE model, to get an estimate of the healthcare costs of the pollution.

https://www.epa.gov/sites/production/files/2015-04/documents/benmap-ce_user_manual_march_2015.pdf

Thank you! This is a great tip! And is something I could totally do without having science background.


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Thanks all so much for the ideas and offers here! I've looped back in with @CherokeeConcernedCitizens and as soon as they find a moment they'll ping back in!

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I took a quick look through the current permit, and it looks like the advice from others to get legal help is a great one! What I did notice is the types of pollutants that they need to supposedly monitor in their waste emissions- like H2S (hydrogen sulfide). If you have already been doing some monitoring and have data (from an accredited lab ideally with proper chain of command so that they cannot discredit it) that could show that they have not been meeting these requirements then this could be a strong case for intervention from regulatory bodies. If you have any questions about the science side of the different pollutants, limits for them in air, water, soil, health effects etc I would be happy to more thoroughly workshop it together and I did get some other environmental toxicologists on board.

THANK YOU!!! We just found out that the permit is up for review and comment. We are going to ask for an extension but we know we have 30 days. All of Chevron's public records were not available when recently asked to review them. We were told they were being copied/scanned for digital access. I have to find out where they are on this process. We may be able to get access online.

I would love to workshop together. Please let me know what you have in mind and when works best for you and other. Please email at citizensbuyout@gmail.com.


@DanielleS @kgradow1 tagging so you see the latest updates! Sounds like a collaboration in the works!


Thanks! I'll send you an email now :)


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