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NPL Site Narrative for Falcon Refinery
FALCON REFINERY
Ingleside, Texas
Federal Register Notice: September 5, 2002The Falcon Refinery site occupies approximately 104 acres in San Patricio County, Texas, and is located 1.7 miles southeast of State Highway 361 on FM 2725 at the northwest and southeast corners of Farm to Market 2725 and Bishop Road. The site is bordered by wetlands to the northeast and southeast, residential areas to the north and southwest, an abandoned refinery to the northwest, and a construction company to the southwest. The site is being proposed to the NPL based on evidence that hazardous substances, including arsenic, barium, chromium, copper, lead, manganese, mercury, nickel, selenium, vanadium, zinc and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) have migrated or could potentially migrate from the facility to active fisheries and sensitive environments within the adjacent wetlands, Redfish Bay, Aranas Bay, and Corpus Christi Bay.
The Falcon Refinery facility consists of a refinery that has operated intermittently since 1980 and is currently inactive. When in operation, the refinery operated at a 40,000 barrels per day capacity with primary products consisting of naphtha, jet fuel, kerosene, diesel, and fuel oil. Another portion of the site includes a dock facility on Redfish Bay where materials were transferred between barges and storage tanks. The refinery processed material that consisted of not only crude oil but also contained hazardous substances including K048 (dissolved air flotation float), K049 (slop oil emulsion solids), K050 (heat exchanger bundle cleaning sludge), and K051 (API separator sludge) wastes. Other wastes at the site include: (1) vinyl acetate detected inside tanks during a EPA Criminal Investigation Division (CID) criminal investigation and a TNRCC Region 14 sampling event, (2) cooling tower sludges containing chromium, (3) non crude oil constituents detected in a pipeline spill, (4) untreated wastewater release inside tank berms, and (5) leaking drums.
The history of this site is marked by the numerous complaints by nearby residents as early as 1978 concerning the construction of the facility along Redfish Bay, odors allegedly produced from processing impure crude in 1985-86 and then to odors associated with a spill in 2000. On March 12, 1986, an inspection conducted by the Texas Water Commission revealed that the company had disposed of cooling tower sludges on-site and untreated wastewater in tankage was discharged into sandy, unlined containment structures. On November 15, 1995, during a hydrostatic pipeline test, a spill of approximately eight barrels of a crude oil mixture occurred in the wetlands adjacent to the facility. During a January 2000 compliance inspection, TNRCC observed a leak from a tank in a naptha stabilizer unit. TNRCC estimated that approximately 220 gallons of industrial waste had leaked from the tank. In response, TNRCC conducted soil and sediment sampling activities in May 2000.
During the 2000 Expanded Site Inspection, TNRCC documented the presence of fluoranthene, pyrene, benzo(a)anthracene, chrysene, benzo(b)fluoranthene, benzo(k)fluoranthene, benzo(a)pyrene, indeno(1,2,3-cd)pyrene, benzo(g,h,i)perylene, dibenz(a,h)anthracene, barium, manganese, and mercury in sediment samples collected from the nearby wetlands and Redfish Bay. Redfish Bay supports an active finfish and shellfish fishery, and potential habitat areas for several State and Federal threatened or endangered species, including the brown pelican and reddish egret, and Kemp's ridley sea turtle. The Redfish Bay, Aranas Bay, Corpus Christi Bay system is a designated National Estuary.
For more information about the hazardous substances identified in this narrative summary, including general information regarding the effects of exposure to these substances on human health, please see the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry (ATSDR) ToxFAQs. ATSDR ToxFAQs can be found on the Internet at http://www.atsdr.cdc.gov/toxfaq.html or by telephone at 1-888-42-ATSDR or 1-888-422-8737.