FHRPineBend.com - Impacts: Ambient Air Quality

Learn about Flint Hills Resources' pollution prevention efforts and how you too can make a difference.

On report pages, click here to see how much of the selected pollutant was emitted from the refinery.

Source Data information for VOC air impacts and other air impacts.

This file is in Microsoft Excel Comma Separated Values format.

Learn where we get the data for the graphs and how we ascertain the data's quality.

Build your own report by selecting a pollutant and a report type.

Air Quality Index
Air Quality in the Pine Bend area is usually in the "Good" range according to the Air Quality Index as reported by the MPCA. The Air Quality Index or AQI combines the ambient monitoring readings for all criteria pollutants into a single number or index. Using annual average data, air in the Pine Bend area has been in the "Good" range since 1995 as can be seen in the chart below.

This chart compares the air quality index near Flint Hills Resources for the last 10 years.

The quality of the air in Pine Bend is measured at five locations. One monitor is east of the refinery (in the triangle of land formed by Highways 52 and 55), one is west, just west of Rich Valley Boulevard and south of 117th Street, one is located south of the refinery on 140th St. north of Rich Valley Golf Course, one is southeast of the Pine Bend Industrial Area on County Road 42 east of Highway 52 and the fifth site is north of the refinery just south of 117th St. and west of the Highway 52 / 117 St. interchange.

At four of the monitors, the MPCA measures sulfur dioxide, volatile organic compounds and carbonyls. Nitrogen oxides and carbon monoxide are monitored at two of the sites and two of the sites measure total reduced sulfur compounds. In 2003, four sampling devices for total suspended particles were added to four of the five sites as requested by the Flint Hills Community Advisory Council. These samples are analyzed by the MPCA for toxic metals content.

The Minnesota Pollution Control Agency (MPCA) also measures weather conditions (wind speed and direction, temperature, relative humidity, barometric pressure) at two of the sites. Every six days, the MPCA takes a sample of air over 24 hours and analyzes that sample in the MPCA laboratories for hazardous air pollutants.

Finally, the MPCA monitors for ambient levels of low-level ozone at 5 sites throughout the Metropolitan area. The closest monitoring site to the refinery is at the Dakota County Government Center in Hastings. Ozone is not emitted directly by the refinery or other sources, but is formed in the atmosphere from the reaction of sunlight, nitrogen oxides, and volatile organic compounds (chemicals emitted by the refinery).

A description of the MPCA monitoring program and MPCA data can be found on the MPCA Web site. For more information on the AQI, please see the MPCA Web site or the EPA Web site.

As part of its emission reduction initiative, Flint Hills reduced air emissions from over 12,000 tons in 1997 to approximately 4500 tons in 2004. Significant reductions were made to volatile organic compounds (VOCs), nitrogen oxides (NOX) and sulfur dioxide (SO2) emissions. Over the last 10 years, air emissions have decreased by 75 percent.

Five ambient air monitors around the refinery monitor air quality in the entire Pine Bend area, including the refinery, other industries and vehicles that drive through the area. Those monitors show that the Pine Bend area meets air quality standards.

Flint Hills Resources has worked with its Community Advisory Council (CAC) to relocate some of the ambient air monitors and to install equipment in the monitors that measure heavy metals. The CAC has hired an independent expert to review the data from the air monitors. Flint Hills and the CAC will review the data collected regarding heavy metals.

Because cars and trucks have such a large effect on air quality, FHR continues to produce even cleaner transportation fuels, which will help to reduce the impact of vehicles. FHR�s Blue Planet� gasoline has helped to remove the equivalent emissions of 60,000 cars a year off the road. Flint Hills introduced Blue Planet� six years ahead of the EPA�s new maximum sulfur standard for gasoline. FHR and its customer, Holiday Stationstores installed Stage I vapor recovery systems at Holiday gas stations which reduce emissions when tanker trucks unload fuel. This will also help to improve air quality throughout the Twin Cities.

Flint Hills is also a member of Clean Air Minnesota (CAM), an organization of businesses, environmental groups, state agencies and local governments working on voluntary measures to reduce air pollution. Flint Hills is working with CAM, the MPCA and other businesses on a project to retrofit school buses with pollution control equipment to reduce diesel emissions.<

Despite the fact that the air in the Twin Cities is usually classified as �Good� by the MPCA, there are days when air quality readings are in the �Moderate� range. To see the Air Quality Index for Minnesota, go to: http://aqi.pca.state.mn.us/hourly/ On these days people with respiratory sensitivities may experience adverse health impacts. Not to be overlooked is the fact that the refinery produces gasoline to fuel vehicles that account for a great portion of air pollution in the Pine Bend area. Accordingly, consumers must demand greater fuel efficiency from their vehicles and less polluting gasoline, as these two factors will be important to maintaining �Good� air quality.

MCEA believes it is very important to monitor and measure for heavy metals in the ambient air. We are pleased that FHR will install equipment on some of its monitors to collect this data and will continue to work with its Community Advisory Council on this issue as the data becomes available.

We recommend that FHR consider working with the MPCA to share information from local air quality monitoring stations in a timely and understandable manner.