Omega Refining Corp. of Marrero has its eye on a 12.6-acre site beside the Michoud Canal
The New Orleans City Planning Commission divided 3-3 Tuesday on a proposal to authorize a plant in eastern New Orleans to re-refine used motor oil. The final decision is up to the New Orleans City Council. The site is in Councilman Jon Johnson's district, and the council is likely to accept whatever he recommends.
New Orleans City Councilman Jon JohnsonOmega Refining Corp. of Marrero proposes building the plant on a 12.6-acre site next to the Michoud Canal in an area zoned for heavy industrial uses. The nearest homes are about 1.5 miles away.
The site has access to water, rail and truck transport. The main entrance would be from Intracoastal Drive.
The operation would involve re-refining recycled motor oil using a hydrotreater and thermal soil system. The plant would process base stock oil recovered at the applicant's Marrero separation facility and barged to the Michoud site.
Omega plans to retain an existing warehouse building and to construct 17 storage tanks totaling 3 million gallons, a hydrotreater, a pump station, a truck loading station, a new rail spur and other facilities.
In materials furnished to the commission, Omega said it operates the second-largest used motor oil re-refining facility in the United States in Marrero.
The transportation and industrial sectors in the United States generate about 230 billion gallons of used motor oil annually, the company said, but only about 5 percent is re-refined. The United States "lags dramatically" behind Europe in this regard, it said.
Re-refining keeps the used oil from being burned or dumped, thus helping the environment. One gallon of used motor oil can contaminate 1 million gallons of water, the company said.
Through re-refining, the used oil can be turned into products such as motor oils, transmission fluids, hydraulic oils and industrial lubricants as well as asphalt paving materials.
Compared with refining virgin crude oil for the same purposes, it takes just one-seventh as much energy to re-refine used motor oil into lubricating base oil, Omega said.
The commission's staff said the site, alongside the Michoud Canal and within the city's largest heavy-industrial district, is appropriate for such a plant.
The staff said Omega provided an environmental assessment that follows National Environmental Policy Act checklist standards. An independent, certified risk assessor hired by the city reviewed the report and agreed that the oil-recycling facility would have no impact on the environment, with two possible exceptions that the staff said "can be adequately addressed by further reviews and permitting by the Louisiana Department of Environmental Quality."
However, Commissioner Pamela Bryan said she still had questions about the two areas cited in the independent review done by Minerals Management Group Inc.
Commissioner George Amedee said he had questions about whether Omega has met with leaders of eastern New Orleans residential organizations. Omega officials have said they have been working with Johnson's office to reach out to residents, but Chairman Craig Mitchell refused to let them explain Tuesday what steps they have taken since a Jan. 24 public hearing at which two leaders of eastern New Orleans residents said they had not been contacted about the project and did not know enough about it to take a position.
No residents attended Tuesday's meeting, at which the commission did not schedule further public comments on the issue.
Kelly Brown joined Amedee and Bryan in voting against approving the conditional-use permit Omega needs. Mitchell, Lois Carlos-Lawrence and Lou Volz voted in favor. Three members were absent.
Bruce Eggler can be reached at beggler@timespicayune.com or 504.826.3320.