Valero Energy has agreed to pay $122,500 to the Bay Area Air Quality Management District as a civil penalty to settle air quality violations at Valero Benicia Refinery, Jack Broadbent, the Air District’s executive officer, said Thursday.

The settlement is for 25 notices of violation the Air District issued to Valero for incidents reported in 2011.

One of the violation notices was issued for a public nuisance caused by odors from the refinery’s wastewater treatment plant operations, Broadbent said.

Another 14 were issued for brief violations of emission limits that are measured by monitors on refinery equipment.

The refinery also experienced minor leaks from pentane or butane tanks and had minor administrative violations, Broadbent said.

The settlement “is nothing new,” Valero Public Affairs Manager Sue Fisher Jones said. “It is common for the BAAQMD to group Notices of Violations (NOVs), as is the case with these from 2011.

“As is typical, most (violations) are self-reported by Valero. Some are reported by the refinery with an abundance of caution because data needs to be verified in order to make the official call that something was, or was not, out of compliance,” she said. “In the case of these 25 NOVs from 2011, three had no fines levied against them because it was deemed that no violation occurred.”

The Bay Area Air Quality Management District is the regional agency responsible for protecting air quality in the nine-county San Francisco Bay Area.

Broadbent said the Air District issues notices to inform facilities they have violated a particular air quality regulation or rule.

Violators usually must respond to notices within 10 days, and need to send the Air District a description of actions they’ll perform to correct the situation, he said.

Such mitigating actions can range from shutting down operations immediately to modifying those operations to assure that operators are making changes that would bring equipment into compliance with the Air District’s regulations.

The Air District will use the Valero settlement money to underwrite such activities as making inspections and enforcing its regulations, Broadbent said.

The agency’s website is www.baaqmd.gov.

“Bay Area refineries must operate within strict federal, state and local air quality regulations that protect air quality and public health,” Broadbent said. “Violations of air quality regulations, no matter how minor, must be addressed and refineries held accountable.”

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