Neighbors wary of tar sands refinery in Detroit
By Eartha Jane Melzer | 06.23.11
The Marathon refinery in southwest Detroit is expanding in order to process more Canadian tar sands crude oil, a move it admits will increase pollution in a neighborhood already burdened by industrial contamination.
The Detroit Free Press reports that many want to leave the neighborhood and that Marathon has bought up some of the homes around its 81 year-old factory for use as parking lots or green space.
But some residents say the company is making lowball offers on their homes and that they are being asked to sign agreements promising not to sue Marathon for future health problems — claims that the company denies.
Many complain that the neighborhood’s air quality has declined since Marathon began its $2.2 billion expansion three years ago and also that the company is dumping toxins into the sewer, causing unpleasant odors to rise from the storm drains.
Marathon insists that it stays within its permitted emissions, but state regulators have issued violations.
Since 2008, the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality has issued five violations against the company, four of them within the last year. Three of them involve odors that “constitute an unreasonable interference with the comfortable enjoyment of life and property.”
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“It’s a toxic wasteland,” said Adrienne Crawford-Hill, who has lived at 12516 Pleasant St. for decades and dreams of moving to Phoenix or North Carolina to escape the dust that constantly accumulates on her window sills and cars. “It’s not so pleasant.”
She and many of her neighbors who live around the corner on Liebold Street want Marathon to buy them out. But according to some residents who have contacted the company, the money Marathon is willing to pay isn’t enough for them to leave the pollution behind and make a fresh start elsewhere.
In Toxic Tar Sands: Michigan the Sierra Club gives details on what life is like for people who live around the Marathon refinery.
http://michiganmessenger.com/50225/neighbors-wary-of-tar-sands-refinery-...
