Piles of tar-sands waste in Chicago are pissing people off
http://grist.org/news/piles-of-tar-sands-waste-in-chicago-are-pissing-people-off/
?w=250&h=187
Anthony Martinez via Southeast Environmental Task Force
A pollution cloud in southeast Chicago.
Clouds of coal dust and petroleum coke, a waste product from the refining of tar-sands oil, have been enveloping neighborhoods on Chicago’s southeast side. Federal, state, and city officials are finally moving to temper the dangerous air pollution.
The villains: KCBX Terminals (a division of Koch Industries) and Beemsterboer Slag Co.
The villainous acts: The companies own three terminals along the Calamut River that are storing huge piles of coal and petroleum coke, aka petcoke, which is coming from a nearby BP refinery. But they aren’t bothering to cover all that gunk to make sure it stays on site, so it’s being picked up by winds and blown over neighboring homes, forcing residents to stay indoors.
The plot: The piles of petcoke are expected to grow in Chicago and elsewhere around the country as refineries switch to processing tar-sands oil from Canada. Detroit suffered a similar problem (also courtesy of the Kochs) until city, state, and federal officials banded together to chase it away with lawsuits and legislation.
= new reply since forum marked as read
Maybe someone can run a Geiger counter over the "huge piles of coal and petroleum coke"?
That way, you might get some action on this 100% genuine, clear & present danger to the health
of anyone affected:
> it’s being picked up by winds and blown over neighboring homes, forcing residents to stay indoors.
Better still, we'd only need to change a few place names in the standard hysteria post
in order to get the problem plastered over the entire internet ...
"This would spell the end for Chicago, more than likely rendering Illinois uninhabitable
and throwing CPMs in the northern hemisphere to the unlivable (sic) level.
Watch Arnie Gundersen's new video about this at Fairewinds. He can explain it better
than anyone."
(c.f., http://www.democraticunderground.com/112757951#post4)
