By KERI CHAMPION

Staff Reporter

GARYVILLE-Louisiana Department of Enviromental Quality is hosting a public hearing on November 2, to allow residents to voice their comments and concerns on the expansion of the Marathon Petroleum Company LLC facility.

The hearing will be held at 4663 West Airline Highway in Garyville.

Marathon is requesting an increase in refining capacity by 180,000 barrels per calendar day. The increase in capacity would increase the refinery emissions slightly.

The hearing will address modified emission permit requests proposed by Marathon.

&#8220The hearing is being held so residents who have read the proposed emissions reports can have their questions about expansion and pollutant outputs answered and give us their opinions on the expansion,” said Wally Dows, environmental manager for Marathon.

Marathon is building several new structures to help increase their refining capacity, including a Coker unit and storage tanks.

‘We want the public to know that we will be expanding and this gives residents the opportunity to give us some feedback before the end of the public comment review period,” Dows said.

Dows said that the expanded facility will be well within the Department of Environmental Quality’s guidelines for emissions when the plant has finished its expansion.

&#8220Right now St. John the Baptist Parish is in attainment of all guidelines laid out by LDEQ. The Marathon Petroleum Company was required to develop a dispersion model that would inform the public of the new proposed emission levels from Marathon and its surrounding emissions impact,” he said.

With the expanded plant, emissions permit levels have to be modified to compensate for the increase in production and size.

&#8220There will be no danger to the community with the slight increase in pollutants when the new permits are approved,” he said.

Interested parties can view the new levels the permit would allow at the Garyville library, the main library in LaPlace or at www.deq.louisiana.gov

Written notification of the final decision on allowing the permits may also be requested.