EIP’s national study of water pollution from oil refineries reveals that EPA is failing in its legal responsibilities to regulate the half billion gallons of wastewater a day that pours out of U.S. refineries, loaded with nitrogen, industrial salts, cyanide, arsenic, chromium, selenium, and other pollutants.
Eighty-one refineries across the U.S. that discharge to waterways released 1.6 billion pounds of chlorides, sulfates, and other dissolved solids (which can be harmful to aquatic life) in 2021, along with 60,000 pounds of selenium (which can cause mutations in fish), and 15.7 million pounds of algae-feeding nitrogen (as much as from 128 municipal sewage plants), among other pollutants, according to public records examined by the Environmental Integrity Project.
