Sign to help shut down Shell’s plastics plant!

Shell’s plant is a disaster for Pennsylvania and the entire planet.

It violates air quality limits and threatens local communities’ health. It accelerates the climate crisis fueling wildfires, floods, and storms around the globe. It creates plastics that are filling our oceans and invading our air, water, and food.

Here’s the bottom line: this Shell plant is good for no one but Shell executives’ wallets. It needs to be shut down.

James

Mill

Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection

Dear Director James Mill,

I am writing to support the letter sent by Eyes On Shell, Environmental Integrity Project, and Clean Air Council on February 17, 2023, urging the PA DEP to immediately issue an order directing Shell Polymers Monaca to cease operations at the facility in Beaver County, Pennsylvania until the facility can prove it can operate within compliance.

November 15, 2023, marks one year of operations at this facility. In just one year of operations the facility has received 13 notices of violation from your agency and reported at least 22 malfunctions. From 2022 to now the facility has reported at least 53 malfunctions and over the past year of operations and 5 years of construction the PADEP has given Shell 24 Notice of Violations.

For almost the entirety of Shell’s first year of operations the community was breathing in illegal and excess VOC emissions from the facility. The illegal pollution from this past year has the potential to have long-term health impacts on residents living around this facility and we have already started to see the immediate health impacts. This first year of operations has been catastrophic, and this behavior must not be allowed to continue unchecked into the second year. Retroactively requiring monthly emission reports, malfunction reports, and issuing violations is not enough to protect the community and environment.

The Consent Order and Agreement issued in May of 2023 was a first step towards accountability for the facility but also too little too late. Since the issuing of the COA in May, Shell has received 2 new notices of violation and had at least 12 malfunctions with no fines or penalties. The PADEP must not take a pay-to-pollute stance with one of the largest polluters in Southwestern Pennsylvania.

This repeated pattern of malfunctions, illegal behavior and blatant disregard for community, worker, and environmental safety is unacceptable. The PADEP must not continue to allow Shell to pollute and endanger the community. I am asking the PADEP to learn from Shell’s first year of operations and order the facility to cease operations until it can prove it can operate within compliance.

Thank you for considering my opinion.

Sincerely,
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{user_data~City}, {user_data~State} {user_data~Postcode}

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