Sioux City Journal

Refinery should only be built in a remote area

Posted: Thursday, April 10, 2008

SOUTH SIOUX CITY n The proposed location of the new Hyperion plant would be in extreme Southeast South Dakota, just north of Elk Point and near the borders of Nebraska and Iowa.

Hyperion states that it will be a “clean” plant. Not so, according to Denny Larson, executive director of Global Community Monitor, a California-based environmental advocate working to clean up U.S. oil refineries. He said in an AP article printed in the March 3 Journal that the oil extracted from the Alberta, Canada, tar sands is a dirty, bottom-of-the-barrel substance with numerous toxic compounds, and those contaminants have to be removed and dumped into the environment during the complex process of making gasoline.

According to a 613-page air quality permit application Hyperion filed with the South Dakota Department of Environment and Natural Resources, the center each year would emit nearly 2,000 tons of carbon monoxide, 773 tons of nitrogen oxides, more than 1,000 tons of particulate matter, 863 tons of sulfur dioxide and 473 tons of volatile organic compounds.

Larson called those estimates “optimistic and unrealistic,” saying they only apply to routine operations and don’t account for fugitive emissions.

Dr. Charles Yelverton of Vermillion, S.D., stated in an article printed March 4 in the Journal that refineries’ emissions are “a significant threat to our health and to the environment” that could lead to anything from skin rashes to kidney diseases.

In view of the above testimony, I strongly feel that a refinery of this magnitude should only be built in a more remote area at least 50 miles away from any metropolitan area like Siouxland. n Gordon Krogh

Story Comments

Concerned wrote on Apr 16, 2008 1:03 PM:

" I hate to break the news to everyone, but to 99.999% of the world, they ARE planning to build it in a remote area. "

Spink Farmer wrote on Apr 13, 2008 6:56 AM:

" Why are we even thinking of putting this plant in Union county in the first place? The total absence of apathy for the people being forced to live next to this proposed project is appalling. Are somehow their lives collateral damage? Do they not count? When a society starts deciding that groups of people do not have the right to exist as they please we find ourselves beginning to turn from a democratic nation into a fascist, nihlistic machine that believes only certain individuals have rights and the ruling class has the privledge to take those rights at a whim. It is truly obscene that Hyperion thinks that just because they have money that they deserve more "democracy"(READ:access to politicians and public discourse) then the everyday citizen. So the question that needs to be asked is, Why are the people in the direct path of the Hyperion Project expected to be altruistic? Forcing any american to sacrifice against their will is simply UN-AMERICAN. "

Emissions wrote on Apr 12, 2008 9:22 PM:

" Keith,

The emissions are emitted to the air. The numbers sited are from Hyperion's own application. It is not malarkey, it is a fact. Even at that, the Hyperion estimates are very low compared to existing refineries. If you think there will be a zero emission refinery, you are a fool. "

UN wrote on Apr 12, 2008 2:41 PM:

" For those of you who are quick to past judgment on to those who suddenly have become "such environmentalists", go easy. People often take for granted the quality of their air, water and soil until they are forced to confront something. And I think a lot of people are coming to that realization/awakening. Keep your condemning thoughts to yourself! "

jpc wrote on Apr 12, 2008 2:16 PM:

" Keith- If they capture pollutants to measure them why did Hyperion even release these numbers. Are you suggesting this is some sort of sick catch and release game industries play? "What malarkey" Sounds like pollutants may have already "Captured" a few of your brain cells. "