An air monitor at the edge of ExxonMobil’s refinery and chemical facility in Beaumont, Texas, showed concerningly high levels of benzene twice in 2025, according to data compiled by the Environmental Integrity Project (EIP).

For the two-week period ending on April 29, the monitor captured a benzene concentration over seven times higher than the EPA’s “minimal risk level” for short-term exposure to benzene, a colorless, sweet-smelling gas known to cause cancer. The monitor measured benzene at 210 micrograms per cubic meter, compared to the EPA’s risk level of 29 micrograms per cubic meter.

For the two-week period ending Aug. 5, the monitor logged a benzene level of 120 micrograms per cubic meter, more than four times the short-term risk level, according to EPA published on EIP’s Benzene Fenceline Monitoring Dashboard.

The air monitor that recorded the two benzene spikes is next to the complex’s loading docks for barges on the Neches River loading their tanks with fuel and chemicals from the Exxon’s refinery and chemical plants. The 123-year-old complex is the third-busiest refinery in the U.S., processing more than 600,000 barrels of oil per calendar day, according to federal data.

The facility is among the 136 refineries and chemical plants in the U.S. that monitor benzene concentrations at their fencelines. Following a lawsuit by community groups, the EIP and allies, U.S. oil refineries since 2018 have been required by the EPA to monitor benzene levels and take steps to reduce emissions if calculated values exceed an “action level” of 9 micrograms per cubic meter.

The facility is one of five nationwide whose calculated benzene value exceeded the EPA’s action level at the end of last year.

ExxonMobil’s benzene spikes in April and August 2025 pushed the Beaumont complex’s long-term benzene average to 19 micrograms per cubic meter, well above the threshold at which cleanup efforts are required. Benzene concentrations have since decreased, though some two-week concentrations are still above the 3 micrograms per cubic meter considered high enough to pose longer-term health risks with prolonged exposure.