Marathon Oil Noxious Odors Marathon Oil refinery's major malfunction blankets SE Michigan in noxious miasma, community responds with demands for accountability Marathon Oil Emits Hydrogen Sulfide, Sulfure Dioxide photo credit: erik howard Stench, stink, reek, fetidness, funk-- call it what you will-- on Feb 2 and 3, residents in SE Michigan was blanketed in a foul odor. The cause? The Marathon Oil refinery, the state's only refinery, experienced a malfunction in a coker flare, which usually burns off these chemicals into the atmosphere, and likely due to the cold polar vortex. Residents closer to the plant began to panic when everyone on the block from S.Dearborn and SW Detroit, were reporting headaches, burning of the eyes and sinuses, dizziness and vomiting. Imagine waking up at 3am not knowing what's happening, your kids are vomiting and you can't breathe-- do you stay or leave? Will it get better or worse? Am I being poisoned? There was no clear answer. By Sunday, some residents were receiving messages from the Dearborn Police Department, some from City of Detroit and some from the State of Michigan saying that there were no elevated readings of pollution in the neighborhoods-- this according to Marathon's self-reporting. Some people got a robo call from the company, others used the internet to gain more info. But there was no single message offering clarity. Sixty residents reportedly called the MDEQ Pollution Emergency line. On February 4 EPA released a report indicating that Marathon Oil released one hundred pounds of hydrogen sulfide and 500 pounds of sulfur dioxide. Providing oversight for air quality monitoring, EPA reported that Marathon recorded 0 emissions. Frustrated by the lack of action, Monday morning elected officials joined residents Theresa Landrum, Meghan Soboscienski, Victor Jimenez, and Christy Beiber who spoke to media in front of Marathon explaining the panic the release caused, the illness people were experiencing, and calling on the government to take immediate action to protect on human health and safety. Yet 40% of Detroit does not have access to internet. On Friday Marathon issued another alert for emissions on 3pm: "Possible ODOR emission due to Marathon repair work. The City Health Department recommends staying indoors: It's clear that a definitive emergency response alert, and plan was not implemented, and that residents are exposed to chemical contamination during malfunctions, and are fighting to be heard and believed. People have the right to breathe, a right to know what they are breathing and when and how that right has been violated. Others have raised questions about the implementation of the Obama Era rules on shutdown start-up and malfunction. This is not the first time Marathon has been called out for pollution releases. In 2016 they paid out a $334 million settlement for pollution in five different states.

Copyright © 2019 Michigan Environmental Justice Coalition, All rights reserved. You are receiving this email because you care about Environmental Justice and signed up to receive alerts from the Michigan Environmental Justice Coalition (MEJC). Our mailing address is: Michigan Environmental Justice Coalition 1725 Lawndale Detroit, Michigan  48209