Piles of petroleum coke stored on the banks of the Detroit River at one point, reached four-stories high. The piles were stored uncovered along the Detroit River from 2012, until late 2013 when the city ordered the toxic piles removed. News reports at the time of the controversy stated that pet coke from the Marathon refinery is being sold mostly for use in overseas markets like China and India where it will be burned as fuel. However, DTE Energy spokesperson Randi Berris confirmed that the power company did use pet coke from the Detroit refinery in tests at their Monroe coal plant downriver i
Piles of petroleum coke stored on the banks of the Detroit River at one point, reached four-stories high. The piles were stored uncovered along the Detroit River from 2012, until late 2013 when the city ordered the toxic piles removed. News reports at the time of the controversy stated that pet coke from the Marathon refinery is being sold mostly for use in overseas markets like China and India where it will be burned as fuel. However, DTE Energy spokesperson Randi Berris confirmed that the power company did use pet coke from the Detroit refinery in tests at their Monroe coal plant downriver in February and March of 2013. The Michigan Department of Natural Resources and Environment granted DTE an air permit in late 2010, just before new stricter federal regulations came into effect to burn the material. The permit allows DTE to burn 10-12% pet coke in its fuel mix at the facility. To date, 13,500 tons of pet coke have been burned in the testing process during the months of August, 2012 and February and March 2013. Berris said that 500 tons, 10 truckloads, came from stockpiles stored at this location along the Detroit river. The rest was supplied directly from the Marathon refinery and another supplier in Louisiana. She added that with the controversy surrounding the Koch-owned stockpiles along the Detroit river, DTE decided against getting its supply from there in the future because they, “want to be good corporate citizens.” She said that if DTE decides to use pet coke in the future, and they choose the Marathon refinery to get it from, they will secure supplies directly from the refinery, not an outside supplier.
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Keywords: ambassador, bridge, brothers, carbon, coke, detroit, dirty, fuel, health, koch, living, marathon, michigan, pet, petcoke, petroleum, pollution, public, refinery, river, sacrifice, sands, tar, zone
