The massive piles of petroleum coke sitting on the shores of the Detroit River were a bit smaller Thursday after a ship from the Canada Steamship Lines began to remove some of the material to transport it to an undisclosed location.
Th vessel was using a conveyor belt to load the petcoke and workers could be seen from the Windsor side of the river working to move the pile.
Officials from the freight company’s headquarters in Montreal did not respond to a request on where the ship was taking the petcoke.
Officials from the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality (MDEQ) were observing the petcoke as it was being loaded on to the freighter, said Andy Hartz, southeast Michigan district co-ordinator for the agency.
The only rules which can be enforced by MDEQ regarding petcoke are in regards to blowing dust from the large black piles or storm water runoff into the river, he said. There have not been any violations.
Meanwhile, a Detroit state representative scaled over debris to reach the petcoke piles and filled up three large baggies. “We are going to get it tested,” Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-Detroit) told The Star on Thursday.
“It’s important to be a watchdog on this. Southwest Detroit and riverfront communities deserve more than having their questions remain unanswered on this. We are going to get an independent analysis on what we are being exposed to.”
Petroleum coke is loaded onto a Canada Steamship Lines freighter Thursday, March 28, 2013, along the banks of the Detroit river in Detroit, MI. (DAN JANISSE/The Windsor Star)
The petroleum coke a few months ago started to be produced in much greater amounts at the nearby Marathon Petroleum Corp. refinery in Detroit. The refinery completed a massive $2-billion facility upgrade last fall allowing it for the first time to process heavy Canadian crude oil brought in by pipeline from the Alberta oil sands.
Environmentalists and residents on both sides of the border have expressed alarm over the way the black oil byproduct was increasingly being stored in open, four-storey piles right next to the shores of the Detroit River. They fear runoff into the river and blowing dust from the piles.
Petroleum coke is a fine powder which gets distilled and filtered out from the crude. It’s resold for such uses as producing asphalt or as a replacement for coal.
Although not officially listed as a toxic or hazardous product, it can contain heavy metals or sulphur found inside oil sands crude, according to experts.
The petcoke is being stored in Detroit on industrial and railway lands owned by Ambassador Bridge owner Matty Moroun. His company officials have indicated the property is being leased to others who are transporting and storing the petcoke at the riverfront site, just east of the bridge.
Tlaib is frustrated over attempts to get answers from the city of Detroit on whether properties where the petcoke is being stored are zoned properly for such use.
“The city of Detroit has been silent,” she said. “No one from Detroit has got back to me.”
But MDEQ is still looking for answers from Detroit Bulk Storage, which has been storing the product, and other companies involved, as to where storm water runoff is being drained from the site.
“We are waiting for them to respond on the storm water issue and also want to see their fugitive dust plan,” Hartz said.
There are long-term plans to store petcoke on the current site east of the bridge, also at a second location just west of the bridge – Nicholson Terminal, a Detroit Port Authority site where Moroun has operational control.
Windsor resident Malcolm Campbell is among a group which meets daily each morning for an exercise walk along Windsor’s riverfront. The group has been concerned about the environmental impacts from the black piles since it was learned a few weeks ago it was petroleum coke, he said.
“You wonder whether this contaminating the air in west Windsor or the water,” he said. “It’s good to see the ship there (taking away some of the petcoke), but we realize the piles are there for the long-term. That has us worried and concerned.”
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