EPA Fines Wyoming Refinery $153K

HollyFrontier Corp. has agreed to pay a $153,000 penalty for poor emergency management planning at its refinery in Cheyenne.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency said Monday it hoped the agreement would bring the facility in line with safety requirements and help emergency responders by fully informing them about the amounts of types of chemicals stored at the refinery.

EPA inspectors found the refinery had not adequately implemented the risk management planning requirements for some chemicals including assisting with emergency preparedness, making efforts to prevent the release of chemicals and minimize any releases that happen.

Other deficiencies include failing to follow internal procedures for inspecting piping, failing to adequately train employees who operate processing equipment and failing to report some chemicals stored on site.

HollyFrontier spokeswoman Julia Heidenreich says the company has corrected all of the violations.