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Facebook rescue: and you thought Delaware's government and media cared about the environment?

From my friend, Jen Wallace of the Green Party Delaware:
Did you know that there was a 4 car train derailment of FULL tar sands tanker cars at the Delaware City Refinery over the Memorial Day weekend? Did you read about it in the Delaware News-Journal? Nope, you didn't. The Refinery didn't notify DNREC or the community about the derailment either. They claim there were no releases, but here's the scary part (as if this whole thing isn't terrifying enough), they didn't even have the equipment to upright the cars themselves--they had to get it from out of state! Why isn't this being reported by our paper of record? Why doesn't the Refinery have a plan in place to deal with potential disasters like this? Delaware City, Newark, Bear or any of the towns these trains roll through are at risk for being another mayflower, AR or Parkers Prairie, MN.
Plans?  Preparations?

What we have right now is the government THEY pay for, with their campaign contributions to Republicans and Democrats alike.

Comments

Jen Wallace said…
Thanks for helping to spread the word. There is a pretty important hearing for the renewal of the refinery's title v permit on June 4th at 6pm at the Delaware City Fire Hall. One of the reasons we (Sierra Club and GPDE) are against the renewal of this permit is that the refinery's emergency response plan is abysmal. They want approval to increase their emissions (an increase of 33%), but they can't seem to handle what they've already got. And they are trying to intimidate and silence opposition voices by chartering 10 buses to bring employees to the hearing. It's not jobs vs. the environment, it's jobs AND the environment we need to be concerned with.
Nancy Willing said…
Important to note that this was confirmed by DNREC.

What I hate about the arrangement is that the corporation is planning to run the trains with even more, maybe double, the toxic materials so they can unload and barge the excess to their Paulsboro, NJ refinery.

We'd get all the headaches of traffic jams and potential toxic spills and none of the jobs.

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