EPA orders accident-plagued St. Croix refinery shut, citing 'imminent' health threat
Source: Washington Post
The Environmental Protection Agency on Friday ordered a controversial refinery in the U.S. Virgin Islands to stay shut for 60 days because it poses an “imminent” threat to people’s health, a rare step marking the first significant environmental enforcement action undertaken by the Biden administration. St. Croix’s Limetree Bay Refining started operating in February after Trump administration officials expedited a key permit. Since then, it has showered oil on local residents twice, spewed sulfuric gases into the surrounding area and released hydrocarbons into the air.
"Today, I have ordered the refinery to immediately pause all operations until we can be assured that this facility can operate in accordance with laws that protect public health,” EPA Administrator Michael Regan said in a statement. “This already overburdened community has suffered through at least four recent incidents that have occurred at the facility, and each had an immediate and significant health impact on people and their property. EPA will not hesitate to use its authority to enforce the law and protect people from dangerous pollution where they work, live, and play.”
The move marked a sharp turn of events for an island that remains a tourist mecca, but has suffered the harsh impacts of industrial development for decades. Since the start of the year, many residents have struggled to breathe at times as the stench of pollution has invaded their homes, schools and offices. While the Biden administration has dispatched staff to the island and pushed the company to expand air monitoring, some St. Croix residents suggested during a virtual town hall Thursday evening that their own government had failed to protect them.
ChenziRa Davis-Kahina, a native of the territory, said that residents are grateful for officials’ “very eloquent language" and the push to install monitors, but “people are being harmed. Our children are suffering.” “Why are they being allowed to operate without monitors? Why are our officials meeting, instead of shutting them down?” Davis-Kahina asked. “This is becoming uncomfortable to a point that we have to put out a hashtag, like, ‘We can’t breathe.’ We have to put out hashtags, like, ‘Stop killing us.’ We have to put out hashtags to get people to hear what’s happening here in a place that’s supposed to be America’s paradise.” Legal experts said it was highly unusual for EPA to order an entire refinery, rather than just one part, to be closed while managers addressed a potential health threat.
Read more: https://www.washingtonpost.com/climate-environment/2021/05/14/limetree-bay-refinery/
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loss of the endangered elkhorn and staghorn coral outcrops, that are already in population decline, would be an ecological disaster, and it would kill island tourism. This is the EPA doing its job. 
