EPA Found that Savoy Violated the Clean Air Act on Witt Farm

On April 27, Victoria Powell told me that the EPA will conduct a site visit on Witt Farm. Unfortunately, I did not hear anything else about it and there was no report about this in the local news. I therefore decided to write an email to the EPA on 5/12/2014:

"To whom it may concern,

It came to my knowledge that the EPA was called upon and visited what the Michigan DEQ calls Adrian 25, a central oil processing facility within city limits that flared off the natural gas of up to 7 oil wells for more than a year, mostly burning unclean. I reported about this on my blog, e.g. http://adrianoil.blogspot.com/2014/03/will-city-county-or-deq-do-something.html. I did not see any official confirmation of this site visit that supposable happened on 4/29/2014 and nobody contacted me about any details that could be added to a ongoing investigation.
My questions are now: was there a site visit and what if anything will happen? If you need a chronology of the violation, please consult with my blog or respond to this email.


Thanks in advance, Tom"


About two weeks later I received a voice mail from one of the EPA officers that were on site. I returned the call a few days later and was told that the EPA found violations of the Clean Air Act on site and that it was caused by leaks in the system - not as I expected from the flare. The officer did not want to provide me with more details but suggested that I file a Freedom of Information Act
(FOIA) request around June 15, when the final report should have been filed. This sounded reasonable and on June 24th I filed my request EPA-R5-2014-007747 asking for expedited processing due to potential health risks and my plans to inform the public. I was shocked that my request for expedited handling was refused 6/27. I was hoping that the report would still come in reasonable time but I am getting tired of waiting and therefore wrote the below email to the EPA today:

Subject: FOIA Request: EPA-R5-2014-007747 / RE: Fee Waiver and Expedited Processing Determination
 

"To whom it may concern,

I am very disappointed with the decision of the case officer. I clearly stated in my application that I intend to disseminate the information to the general public via my local blog adrianoil.blogspot.com that is subscribed by many Adrian citizens and any other channel that I have - including my media contacts. I also clearly stated that the report should be made available IMMEDIATELY (that means expedited!) as the EPA investigation found serious violations of the clear air act on the site and it is my understanding of democracy and environmental justice that people living close to the facility should know about existing health threats NOW and not half a year later!
As this is not the first and only clear misjudgement by environmental authorities that should safeguard our citizens and the environment I am slowly seeing how people can think that the Michigan DEQ and the EPA are biased or severely undermined by polluting industries.
I EXPECT to receive the report without further delay and without fees the latest by this Monday! I will disseminate this letter on my blog - and I will as well cite the officer from the EPA, who gave me the information on the findings of violations on site. I promised the officer to hold back until I receive the final report but due to your agency's policy of delaying information that the public has a right to know - I will now post what I was told more than a month ago!"

I am seriously hoping to get this report soon and I will disseminate it here and send copies to the media.