The Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection held a public hearing Tuesday night, to gather comments about a new permit for the Shell plastic production facility in Beaver County.
About 70 people testified in front of DEP air quality experts at Penn State Beaver's campus auditorium about the future of Shell's ethane cracker in Monaca. The massive plant, which turns natural gas into plastic, began operations in 2022. Shell received a $1.65 billion state tax credit, the largest in state history.
DEP approved a tentative permit for Shell in February. It includes updates for the company's wastewater treatment and flaring operations, which is a way to burn off excess gasses.
Local business owners and politicians spoke in favor of the permit approval.
"Shell's partnership in Beaver County has resulted in thousands of new jobs, record-breaking investments, and millions of additional philanthropic dollars being injected into our schools and our community stakeholder organizations," testified former state representative Jim Christiana, who lives near the plant.
Opponents argued that the permit is about pollution limits, not economic development. The new permit allows Shell to increase the amount of some pollutants it is allowed to emit, including nitrogen oxide and carbon dioxide, a greenhouse gas.
"I don't understand how we're even here because they can't even stay within their permit limits of existing permits that they have," said Hilary Starcher O'Toole, director of Beaver County Marcellus Awareness Committee, a local environmental group, who testified at the hearing.
The plant has had dozens of violations since it received a $10 million fine from the DEP in 2023 for violations related to its startup. Most recently, it exceeded its rolling 12-month emissions limits for nitrogen oxides for four straight months, from October through January.
DEP spokeswoman Laina Aquiline said in an email that the exceedances were due to the new federal flaring rules.
"Shell is burning more gas … and Shell is adding supplemental gas at its high-pressure flare to achieve the heat content" required under the new rules, Aquiline said.
But pollution from the plant is already causing health problems for some nearby residents. Brooke Hamberger, who attended engineering school in the area, walked up to testify wearing a pink-colored gas mask. She said the air near Shell's plant makes her sick.
"When they release excessive harmful emissions, I experienced debilitating neurological and physical conditions," said Hamberger, who has moved away because of the health impacts, "such as vomiting, tremors, severe pain, confusion, memory issues, and many other systemic symptoms."
DEP said Tuesday night that the intent of the proposed new permit is to correct Shell's current permit violations. "We can't comment on ongoing enforcement cases," said Mark Gorog, DEP's air quality program manager. "But the changes implemented in this plan approval, as we propose them, will correct the issues."
Gorog notes that while the new permit increases the limits for some pollutants, it decreases the allowable amounts of volatile organic compounds and hazardous air pollutants.
The DEP public comment period for Shell's permit is open through April 17.
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