What $225,715 Cannot Buy Back

Canton, Ohio is a working-class city. It sits in Stark County, a place that has watched its industrial economy hollow out over decades. The neighborhoods surrounding Marathon’s refinery at 2408 Gambrinus Avenue SW are not the neighborhoods of executives or lobbyists. They are the neighborhoods of people who cannot choose to live somewhere else simply because a refinery next door is releasing hydrogen sulfide into the air they breathe.

Hydrogen sulfide smells like rotten eggs at low concentrations. At higher concentrations, it stops smelling like anything, because it paralyzes the nerves in your nose. That is not a reassuring fact. It means the air can be dangerous before you know it is dangerous. The gas causes headaches, dizziness, nausea, and irritation of the eyes and respiratory tract at exposure levels that can occur near industrial sources during exceedance events. At very high levels, it kills.

Sulfur dioxide is no better. It reacts in the atmosphere to form fine particulate matter and acid rain. It aggravates asthma, causes respiratory inflammation, and is especially brutal for children and the elderly. When a sulfur recovery plant exceeds its legal SO2 limit for 343 cumulative hours, that is not a paperwork problem. That is months of a known respiratory hazard being released above permitted levels into a community that had every legal right to expect the law was being followed.

What makes this story particularly grim is the reporting failure. On January 30, 2023, one of Marathon’s SO2 excess emission events began at the sulfur recovery plant. Federal law and the company’s own operating permit required Marathon to submit a written report explaining the nature of the malfunction, its cause if known, and what corrective action was taken. That report was never filed. The people whose air was being poisoned had no official record of the event. Regulators who depend on those disclosures to track patterns of non-compliance were left without information they were legally entitled to have. Marathon simply did not tell anyone.

No family is named in this document. No illness is recorded. No hospital visit is cited. That is precisely the point: the system that is supposed to protect communities from industrial pollution runs on self-reported data, and when a company decides not to report, the harm becomes invisible. The penalty in this case does not include any compensation to residents. It goes to the federal government. The people who breathed that air get nothing.

Straight From the Document: What Marathon Signed Off On

Every quote below comes verbatim from Consent Agreement and Final Order, Docket No. CAA-05-2024-0038, signed September 17, 2024. Marathon waived its right to contest any of it.

“Respondent violated Refinery NSPS Subpart J at 40 C.F.R. § 60.104(a)(1) and 2021 Title V Permit Condition C.1(b)(1)(i) by exceeding the 162 ppmv rolling, 3-hour average H2S concentration limit in the fuel gas for EUs B028 and B029 for 72 hours between August 6, 2022 and May 27, 2023.”

CAFO Paragraph 37(a), Factual Allegations and Alleged Violations

“Respondent violated Refinery NSPS Subparts J and Ja at 40 C.F.R. §§ 60.104(a)(1) and 60.102a(g)(1)(ii) and 2021 Title V Permit Conditions C.1(b)(1)(i), C.2(b)(1)(h), and C.3(b)(1)(i) by exceeding the 162 ppmv rolling, 3-hour average H2S concentration limit in the fuel gas for EUs B015, B016, B019, B020, B021, B022, B023, B027, B031, and B033 for 73 hours between August 6, 2022 and May 27, 2023.”

CAFO Paragraph 37(b), Factual Allegations and Alleged Violations

“Respondent violated Refinery NSPS Subpart J at 40 C.F.R. § 60.104(a)(2)(i), Refinery MACT 2 at 40 C.F.R. 63.1568(a)(1), and 2021 Title V Permit Conditions C.8(b)(1)(e) and C.8(b)(1)(g) by exceeding the 250 ppmvd rolling, 12-hour average SO2 emissions limit at zero percent excess air from EUs P011 and P016 for 247 hours between December 23, 2022 and July 14, 2023.”

CAFO Paragraph 37(c), Factual Allegations and Alleged Violations

“Respondent violated the NSPS General Provisions at 40 C.F.R. § 60.7(c) and 2021 Title V Permit Condition B.30(a) by failing to prepare and submit a written report that included the nature and cause of any malfunction (if known) and the corrective action taken or preventative measures adopted for the SO2 excess emissions event at EUs P011 and P016 that began on January 30, 2023.”

CAFO Paragraph 37(d), Factual Allegations and Alleged Violations

“Respondent violated the BAT limits specified in OAC Rule 3745-31-05(A)(3) and 2021 Title V Permit Condition C.8(b)(1)(a) by exceeding the 8.66 pounds per hour rolling, 12-hour average SO2 emissions limit for EU P016 for 343 hours between December 23, 2022 and July 14, 2023.”

CAFO Paragraph 37(e), Factual Allegations and Alleged Violations

“Respondent neither admits nor denies the factual allegations in this CAFO.”

CAFO Paragraph 7, Jurisdiction and Waiver of Right to Hearing

The Real-World Damage: Health and Wealth

Public Health

The pollutants at the center of this case are not obscure industrial chemicals. They are well-documented respiratory hazards with known health effects at community-level exposures.

• Hydrogen sulfide is toxic to the nervous system and respiratory system. Exposure at elevated concentrations, which can occur during the kind of multi-hour fuel gas exceedances documented here, causes headaches, dizziness, nausea, and pulmonary edema. The odor threshold is far below dangerous concentrations, meaning people nearby may not smell danger even when it is present.
• Sulfur dioxide is a precursor to fine particulate matter (PM2.5) when it reacts in the atmosphere. PM2.5 penetrates deep into the lungs and bloodstream and is linked to increased rates of asthma attacks, cardiovascular events, and premature death, particularly in children and the elderly. During 247 hours of SO2 exceedance from a sulfur recovery plant, elevated SO2 plumes can reach residential zones downwind of the facility.
• The January 30, 2023 SO2 event that Marathon failed to report represents a specific gap in public health monitoring. When required excess emission reports go unfiled, neither local health authorities, the Canton City Health Department (which is the designated recipient under the permit), nor the public have access to documented evidence of when these events occurred, how severe they were, or how long they lasted.
• Canton, Ohio sits in a region that has historically dealt with industrial air quality challenges. Communities near petroleum refineries in similar demographics nationally show elevated rates of asthma and respiratory illness. This enforcement action covers at minimum 343 hours of illegal SO2 emissions and over 70 hours of illegal H2S emissions, across a period of nearly a year, with no identified health monitoring or community notification in the source document.

Economic Inequality

The financial structure of this settlement illustrates exactly how environmental enforcement can function as a cost of doing business rather than a deterrent.

• The $225,715 penalty was assessed against Marathon Petroleum Company LP, a subsidiary of Marathon Petroleum Corporation, one of the largest petroleum refining companies in the United States. The fine represents a rounding error against a company operating at industrial scale across multiple states. Per day of violation, at the statutory maximum of $57,617, Marathon would theoretically owe far more, but administrative penalty caps and cooperation discounts reduced the total to a fraction of that ceiling.
• The civil penalty is explicitly non-deductible for federal tax purposes under the settlement. However, it carries no community benefit provision, no fund for health monitoring, and no remediation requirement. The money goes to the U.S. Treasury. It does not benefit Canton residents.
• Low-income communities and communities of color are disproportionately located near petroleum refineries nationwide, a pattern documented extensively in environmental justice research. Canton, Ohio’s neighborhoods surrounding the Gambrinus Avenue refinery are not described in the source document, but the absence of any environmental justice analysis or community impact assessment in this settlement is consistent with the standard administrative penalty process, which does not require one.
• The structure of the legal settlement, specifically the “neither admits nor denies” clause, closes off a potential pathway for nearby residents to use this enforcement action as a foundation for civil tort claims. Without a formal admission of the facts, the legal evidentiary value of this settlement in any future private lawsuit is limited.
• Marathon’s agreement to pay covers all six violation counts. There is no per-violation breakdown of the penalty in the document. The opacity of the penalty calculation means there is no public record of how much each category of harm was valued at by EPA’s enforcement analysis.

The Number That Says Everything

Who Is Accountable and What You Can Do

The settlement names one executive and one enforcement official. Beyond them, accountability requires sustained public pressure on both corporate leadership and regulatory agencies.

Who Signed Off

• Kevin Bogard, Senior Vice President of Refining, Marathon Petroleum Company LP, signed the Consent Agreement on behalf of the company.
• Michael D. Harris, Division Director, Enforcement and Compliance Assurance Division, EPA Region 5, signed on behalf of the government on September 16, 2024.
• Ann L. Coyle, Regional Judicial Officer, EPA Region 5, issued the Final Order on September 17, 2024.

Regulatory Watchlist

• U.S. EPA Region 5 (Chicago): The enforcement authority that brought this case. Their public docket system allows you to track future violations and enforcement actions at any facility by name or permit number. Docket No. CAA-05-2024-0038 is the reference number for this case.
• Ohio Environmental Protection Agency (OEPA): The state agency that administers the Title V operating permit (P0127829) for the Canton Refinery. OEPA receives required emissions reports from Marathon. Contact them to request public copies of future quarterly reports from the Canton City Health Department, Air Pollution Control Division, which is named in the permit as the receiving body.
• Canton City Health Department, Air Pollution Control Division: The local agency that was supposed to receive Marathon’s quarterly excess emissions reports under Condition B.30(a) of the 2021 Title V Permit. Residents can contact this office directly to request copies of any reports received or to flag if reports appear missing.
• U.S. Department of Justice, Environment and Natural Resources Division: The DOJ was involved in extending the statute of limitations for this case, allowing EPA to pursue violations older than 12 months. For more serious or repeated violations, the DOJ has authority to pursue criminal prosecution under the Clean Air Act.

Resistance and Mutual Aid

• Request the air quality records directly. Ohio’s public records law gives you the right to request all emissions reports Marathon has filed with OEPA and the Canton City Health Department. Document any gaps or missing filings. The absence of a required report is itself a violation.
• Connect with local environmental justice organizations operating in Stark County and the greater Canton area. Groups focused on industrial air quality and Ohio pollution enforcement can file formal public comments during any future permit renewal processes for the Canton Refinery.
• Map the risk zone. The EPA’s EJScreen tool (ejscreen.epa.gov) lets you enter any address and see cumulative environmental burden scores, including proximity to refineries and air quality indexes. Use it to understand the full picture of what Canton residents near Gambrinus Avenue are dealing with beyond this single enforcement action.
• Track Marathon’s next permit renewal. Title V permits are reviewed periodically. Public comment periods during renewal are one of the few formal mechanisms by which community members can demand stronger BAT requirements, tighter emission limits, or additional monitoring. The 2021 Title V Permit (P0127829) is the current operative document.
• Support clean air advocacy at the state level. Ohio’s BAT standards are part of the State Implementation Plan, which must be approved by EPA. Advocacy organizations pushing for stronger SIP provisions directly shape the standards that companies like Marathon must meet.