…the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) has received an avalanche of calls from other residents who are tired of headaches, choking fumes, and lights so bright they could signal aliens from space.
Posted by John Donovan: 7 Sept 2024
Shell is back at it again—this time, delighting the residents of Monaca, Pennsylvania, with the gift of “noxious odors” and toxic dust wafting in from their well-maintained petrochemical plant. Nothing says “neighborly” like a little ethane cracker plant next door, churning out ethylene for plastics, resins, and whatever else Shell can sell, all while making life hell for those within sniffing distance.
In a lawsuit filed by Flynn, a local resident, it seems Shell’s operation has turned the neighborhood into a dystopian nightmare of foul smells, migraine-inducing noise, and flaring lights that rival a Vegas casino—except, here, the jackpot is pollution. According to the amended 20-page complaint, Shell has been about as good at controlling emissions as they are at pretending to care about the environment. The suit claims that since the Monaca plant opened in 2019, it’s been a festival of failures, with Shell regularly releasing clouds of contaminant-laced gases into the air. Neighbors have had to suffer through “odiferous” smells so bad they make the garbage dump down the road smell like a lavender field.
But let’s not forget the noise. Flynn describes it as if “a freight train” decided to move into his living room and set up camp. This isn’t just a one-off complaint either—the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) has received an avalanche of calls from other residents who are tired of headaches, choking fumes, and lights so bright they could signal aliens from space. And the icing on this toxic cake? The flares. When Shell can’t control its gas emissions, they burn it off in giant flares, lighting up the night sky with a glorious reminder that, yes, they are very much still polluting.
According to the lawsuit, Shell’s permit (ha, as if a piece of paper could stop them) specifically bans the plant from emitting “malodorous air contaminants” detectable outside company property. Well, guess what? Shell has apparently been in “numerous and continuing violations” of that permit since 2020. This is the same Shell, by the way, that has been fined before for failing to follow basic environmental protections—because when you’re a sin stock heavyweight, who’s really going to stop you?
As the lawsuit rightly points out, a properly maintained ethane cracker wouldn’t be making everyone’s life miserable with its noxious fumes. But it seems Shell skipped the part about maintaining, operating, or building their facility in a way that doesn’t ruin the lives of everyone around it. The suit aims to represent anyone unlucky enough to have been within a two-mile radius of the facility for the last two years. That’s right—if you’ve been living in the stink cloud that Shell’s plant has produced, you may just get your day in court.
In the meantime, residents can only hope Shell might one day live up to its claims of “environmental responsibility.” But judging by their track record, it seems more likely they’ll just keep cranking out ethylene, headaches, and enough light pollution to power a small moon.
