From the second story of his modest Blue Island home, Hector Tellez stares out at steam wafting from towering processors at the Clark Oil refinery and gas flames flickering atop spiral-shaped vessels.
An iron worker, Tellez knows the value of the jobs created by heavy industry, but as a homeowner, he does not want to live in its shadow.
And so, after a recent explosion at the refinery led to a failed attempt by the Illinois attorney general to shut it down, Tellez decided it was time to sell his two homes and move his wife and five children to a more residential community, like Orland Park.
“We have to consider what is safe for our children,” explained Tellez, 42, as his 2-year-old son, Theodore, sat on his lap. “There are times when I won’t let my kids go outside and play because there is a very foul smell. It literally burns the sinuses.”
From Blue Island to Lemont to Lockport, many share Hector Tellez’s concerns about refineries and their safety, air pollution, ground and water contamination and, ultimately, the long-term health risks of living near them.
Some neighbors and community groups have stepped up their efforts to get the refineries to improve their environmental monitoring. The refineries, in return, have repeated their vows to be good neighbors. Some refinery officials add, however, that they will deal with their neighbors, not outside groups.
In Blue Island, for example, a community group has pushed for a “good neighbor agreement,” a contract by which local refineries agree to trim emissions and conduct more stringent monitoring. Six such agreements have been signed with refineries in California.
But the Clark Oil manager, Bob Martindale, recently declared at a Blue Island City Council meeting that he would never sign that kind of agreement.
Krista Shepard, a Clark spokeswoman in Clayton, Mo., later said that refinery officials do not want to work with a group that includes outside influences, such as environmental advocacy groups.
“Clark wants to work with our neighbors, the people of Blue Island,” Shepard said, adding that the refinery will have an open house in January.
“The Good Neighbor Committee is made up of people who are not from Blue Island,” she said.
Joan Silke, head of the Citizen’s Good Neighbor Committee, says, “There are some advisers, but we have to get our information from somewhere.” Silke is head of the Citizen’s Good Neighbor Committee and one of those involved in an ongoing class-action suit filed against the refinery in October 1994.
Refineries, to be sure, are not new locally.
These areas have long lived with, and perhaps relied on, heavy industry. In the words of Rev. Glenn Bergmark, pastor at Bethany Lutheran Church and chairman of Lemont’s Environmental Advisory Commission: “We have it all.”
But where there used to be open spaces, there are now homes, schools, churches and shopping. And residents have begun to ask if the refineries’ local economic contributions are adequate, especially because many are in unincorporated areas, with nearby towns seeing little tax benefit.
Of the state’s seven operating oil refineries, four are Downstate and the rest are in the south and southwest suburbs–an attractive industrial base due to its proximity to shipping canals, the railroad and freeways.
Nationwide, the number of refineries has been cut almost in half nationwide in the last 15 years, industry experts said.
The four refineries in the Chicago area are the Clark refinery near Blue Island, the UNO-VEN refinery near Lemont and Romeoville, the Mobil refinery near Joliet, and Amoco’s Whiting, Ind., refinery just across the state line.
Denny Larson, coordinator of the National Oil Refinery Network, who works with grassroots organizations grappling with oil and petroleum refineries in their back yards, calls Illinois a “major refinery center.”
That status is unlikely to change, especially with the proposal by Lakehead Pipe Line Co. to build a pipeline through McHenry, Kane, Kendall and Will Counties that will feed into the refineries in the area.
A string of events–the explosion in October at Clark Oil and other problems over the years, the recently ended lockout at UNO-VEN and suspected leaks at the defunct Texaco refinery near Lockport–have renewed anxieties locally.
In March 1995, two Clark workers were killed in an explosion and in October 1994 hydrofluoric acid leaks at the Clark refinery sent area high school students to the hospital. This fall, the state Environmental Protection Agency said that the refinery was violating the Clean Air Act by releasing more of the cancer-causing chemical, benzene, than the company reported. Clark refutes the state’s claim.
Silke, who has asthma, stopped growing a garden when she found a dusty bluish film covering the vegetables.
The class-action lawsuit she’s involved with was initially filed on behalf of a group of high school students who were briefly hospitalized after an emissions release from the refinery. But it has been broadened to residents claiming long-term exposure to releases as well as reduced property values because of the refinery.
“Being a Christian person, I’d like to see some of these issues resolved before I sell my home to anyone else,” the 38-year-old Silke said.
UNO-VEN has had its share of problems as well. In 1984, 17 people died in an explosion that resulted in millions of dollars in settlements. In December 1995, a worker died in a fire at the plant.
And in the weeks leading up to the recent settlement of a lockout that had lasted since last March, some worried about possible safety risks from the employment of less-experienced temporary workers at the plant.
The problems in Blue Island are made worse by the refinery’s location in an area with homes. In Lemont, refinery operators are attempting to avoid that issue by building up a buffer zone around their property–a plan that has been tried in other parts of the country.
Part of the original refinery in Lemont was built on farmland once owned by Fran Klappa’s grandparents. Klappa, 44, recently sold the last 100 acres to UNO-VEN and bought another farm. After what appeared to be an irresolvable dispute, UNO-VEN also purchased a few acres owned by a Lemont couple who wanted to build a gymnastics facility.
“It’s a long-term plan,” said UNO-VEN spokesman Dave Henderson, adding the new property would not be used to expand the refinery.
Both UNO-VEN and Clark have taken steps to live with their neighbors. Blue Island and Lemont have established an emergency telephone program, partly funded by the refineries, by which residents are notified in the event of a man-made or natural disaster.
UNO-VEN also has a community awareness and emergency response group composed of local officials, Henderson said. “We’ve worked very closely with our community leaders,” he said.
While those in Blue Island and Lemont struggle with the effects of living industry, the people in Lockport are finding out that even a dead one can present problems.
Texaco closed its refinery there in 1982–and its rusted tanks have long been an eyesore. This summer’s torrential rains brought a more frightening problem–in a community that relies on well water, the oily residue that was left as flood waters receded raised concerns about possible contamination from the Texaco site.
Officials with the state and federal EPA have taken separate tests and residents are awaiting the federal agency’s results, expected in January.
“Our main concern is to find out how safe Texaco is,” said Alan Haas, 51, who lives on the west side of Lockport, an area of 70 homes most impacted by the oily residue.
Texaco has not admitted that the oily substance came from the company, said spokesman Gary Miller, but some residents were compensated by the firm for cleanup costs after they signed a waiver.
Lockport mayor Dick Dystrup, in addressing his local concerns, could just as well be speaking for people in Blue Island and Lemont: “Never in my foggiest dreams did I imagine this would be as complicated or as complex.”
