This news story originally provided by The Daily Independent
October 20, 2004
Union takes stand during environmental
meeting
By ALLEN BLAIR
- The Independent
CATLETTSBURG - About 200 union tradesmen
made it clear Tuesday that they'll now be watching environmental
issues at the refinery here, and that includes any move toward
nonunion work.
"I didn't know how much of an
environmentalist we were until hearing the questions we've been
asking tonight," said Steve Burton, business manager of the
Tri-State Building and Construction Trades Council.
"We're going to start doing a better job of policing
this," he said.
Dale West of the Laborer's Local No. 1445 said issues of who works
at the refinery also become an environmental concern because of
its nature.
"With all the dangers, I think it would be wiser to select a
contractor who's done (work there) before," he said.
Their comments, and those from members of
several other unions, came during a joint state EPA-Marathon
Ashland Petroleum-Ashland Inc. public meeting on a years-old
Catlettsburg Refining LLC cleanup project.
The projects stems from an agreed order that the companies signed
in 2000 that requires mitigation, or getting rid, of hydrocarbon
"seeps" into the river. It also called for public
meetings to share environmental work details. Tuesday's was the
fourth.
Several members of the Ohio Valley Environmental Coalition asked
about those details, including what other pollutants had been
found in the soil and water surrounding the refinery and asked if
company representatives would eat the fish from the river.
They also echoed union members' concerns.
"They took an interest and we took an interest," said
Janet Fout of Huntington, OVEC co-director. "We're in the
same boat."
The public knows there are "incredibly dangerous"
processes at a refinery and the talk is of using more non-union
workers from outside the area, said Dianne Bady of Proctorville,
also co-director.
"I think as a community member, the local workers should be
retained," she said. "They are the people who live here,
the people who care about the area."
One union worker asked a MAP employee representing the company's
environmental division to take such a message back to those who
are in charge of hiring.
No friend of the community puts the community out of work, he
said.
During the meeting, Martin Schmidt with URS, consultants working
on the companies' cleanup plan, detailed what's been happening
with the remediation project.
There's been three to four years of extensive sampling and
monitoring in wells to characterize the soils and groundwater
conditions, he said.
Hydrocarbons - oil, crude, kerosene, benzene and others - are
present at several different water levels under refinery land.
Since the public meeting a year ago, 33 wells that pump water and
hydrocarbons out of the ground before they seep into the river are
up and running, although sitewide remediation operations have been
ongoing since 1980, Schmidt said.
"We don't see seeps in some of the north areas ... and
there's more work needed in the south," he said.
The companies will continue the wells, known as interim measures,
during the next 12 months, and will evaluate 10 more wells
installed just recently; as well as continue focusing along the
river where the seeps are, he said.
Following Schmidt's presentation, Burton asked how the unions
could get copies of the information, while several workers quizzed
company spokesmen.
Fout said she still has even more questions.
But, it still makes no sense to bring in out-of-town workers, she
said.
ALLEN BLAIR can be reached at ablair@dailyindependent.com
or (606) 326-2657.
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