Letter to the Editor Times~Picayune Newspaper

We have reason to believe there is an ambitious Murphy Oil Meraux refinery expansion pending. These plans allow refinery encroachment into the neighborhood and result in our neighborhoods' further vulnerability due in part to recent and anticipated zoning changes within the oil spill settlement agreement's buffer zone.

We are all for progress but we are also for our neighborhoods and would like all of Murphy Oil's Meraux refinery expansions and constructions to be with the best available controls and technology.

This is especially true when it comes to our children's health and safety. Our community's only high school, Chalmette High School, is just blocks away. Our small residential neighborhoods are overshadowed by Murphy Oil's large industrial business, and are already precariously located within one block west of the most hazardous side of the refinery and one block east of the older gasoline and storage tanks.
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Many of us remember clearly the ROSE Unit explosion of 2003. We all know what happened with the tank farm in Hurricane Katrina. The tank lifted, the berm or secondary containment dike / levee failed and the foundations of more than one tank had settled over time even before 2005 the tank farm had soil and ground water concerns due to previous releases.
With the tank farm expansion further north into the flood plain closest to the MRGO and the replacement of the damaged tanks off of Judge Perez Drive, we requested improvements not only with controls and monitors for emissions and releases but also for soil subsidence mitigation, berm improvements and anchoring of tanks to prevent another catastrophic chemical spill.
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With any future processing expansions we request our health and safety be the priority and a true protective green zone buffer be preserved. To utilize the court ordered buffer zone for the refinery's commercial and industrial buildings not only lowers the buffer, but places the next explosion or fire that much closer to our children and our homes.
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We believe these are reasonable requests given the known risks.
We know the historic past of this refinery. We question what else is being done besides false promises and ambiguous word games to assure a safe and more responsible future.

concerned citizens around Murphy
Suzanne Kneale, Secretary