Marathon: We responsibly handle pet coke at southwest Detroit refinery

We would like to thank U.S. Rep. Rashida Tlaib for her column, “Don’t let Marathon violate Detroit’s environmental rules,” which posted on Freep.com earlier this week, because it brings up important issues that deserve public discussion. Most importantly, we want our neighbors in southwest Detroit to understand the issues at hand.

First, Marathon Petroleum has never stored bulk materials along the Detroit River. The controversial coke piles from several years ago belonged to other companies that were located along the river, and the way they stored petroleum coke is in stark contrast to the way we handle it on our property.

Tlaib said that we are “proposing measures to mitigate the spread of coke dust,” but in fact, we have had these measures in place for years, and they are effective. Petroleum coke is entirely on our property, surrounded by 30-foot high walls, kept constantly moist with a sprinkler system, and kept covered throughout its transportation and processing. We even require trucks that load petroleum coke on our property to do it in an enclosed building, have their loads covered, and we wash their wheels before they leave.

U.S. Rep. Rashida Tlaib:Don't let Marathon violate Detroit's environmental rules

Unfortunately, that level of care is not always the case in southwest Detroit. Throughout this area, other companies continue to use open-air storage of bulk materials, with none of the controls we have in place at our facility.

Tlaib and our neighbors have serious and legitimate concerns about pollution, and we agree. Where neighborhoods and businesses have grown up around industrial facilities, we continually work to reduce our environmental footprint. At Marathon Petroleum, we take this responsibility seriously. Over the last 20 years — even while we have expanded our operations — we have reduced our emissions by more than 75 percent. In fact, within a two-mile radius, our refinery emissions represent only 3 percent of the total. The remaining 97 percent comes from other industry that has also been here for decades — steel manufacturing, power generation, automobile manufacturing, and more.

Because we want our neighbors to know how we operate, we have made available a detailed fact sheet about our petroleum coke handling, and exactly what provisions of the city’s ordinance we believe we are already addressing. You can find this fact sheet at detroitrefinery.com. We are committed to keeping our neighbors well informed about all the ways we engage in responsible environmental stewardship in our operations.

Dave Roland is refinery general manager at Marathon Petroleum's Detroit Refinery.