Shell is putting residents' health at risk by persistently violating air quality standards at its massive new petrochemical refinery in western Pennsylvania, an environmental group alleged in a lawsuit Thursday.
The “cracker" plant, located along the Ohio River about 30 miles (48 kilometers) outside Pittsburgh, opened in November and uses ethane from a vast shale gas reservoir underneath Pennsylvania and surrounding states to makes polyethylene, a plastic used in everything from consumer and food packaging to tires.
