Why Won't Jack Markell And DNREC Fight For Coastal Zone Act Protections?

(News Journal image)

I predict that this mess won't end with whatever decision results from Tuesday's Coastal Zone Industrial Control Board deliberations. This will end up in the higher courts. I hear Markell's agency has ponied up together with the refinery for legal strategy. We'll end up spending horrendous amounts of public monies defending our bad agency policy decision to circumvent Coastal Zone Act stipulations. This is not Refinery Bad, Environment Good. This is the law is the law and Markell skirted the law for the sake of the lure of jobs and one huge, greasy, slimy, compromise that can't pass the smell test. Under the guise of attorney-client privilege, there is also a masking from the public of what appeared to be advisement from the AG's office to DNREC that the CZA was being skirted.

And it looks like DNREC did not file anything in response to the Refinery's Motion to Dismiss. This in essence means that DNREC/Markell chose not to defend the CZA against the claim that it is preempted by the Interstate Commerce Act, a claim that could significantly limit the scope of the Coastal Zone Act particularly in the broad reading that the Refinery wants applied to it in their motion to dismiss. This inaction is a clear effort to weaken the CZA.  It appears to be the same cowardly and sleazy approach Markell used weakened our protection of Delaware Bay by not appealing the Corps decision for the Main Channel Deepening. 

(News Journal) Jeff Montgomery reports today ~ Groups dispute refinery case

Kenneth T. Kristl, at­torney for Delaware’s Audubon Society and Si­erra Club, said in a legal filing the Coastal Zone Industrial Control Board has jurisdiction over the issue despite PBF Energy’s refinery claims that oppo­nents had wrongly in­voked the conservation law after a disputed air quality permit decision. In the answer filed Wednesday, Kristl said the state’s Coastal Zone law “cannot be read in the way that the refinery wants it to be read.” He also dismissed as a “red herring” company attempts to invoke feder­al restrictions on state or local interference with railroads, noting that the refinery “is not a rail car­rier,” and its terminal is not part of a railroad.

Board members are scheduled to take up the appeal Tuesday. At issue operation of a planned 180,000-bar­rel- a-day crude oil tank car offloading complex as well as a proposal to relay 45,000 barrels of crude oil daily along the Delaware River to the company’s re­finery in Paulsboro, N.J.The Audubon Society and Sierra Club sought the Coastal Zone review last month, contending that Delaware’s Depart­ment of Natural Re­sources and Environmen­tal Control wrongly de­clared that the barge­loading operation can go forward without a Coastal Zone Act permit, even though the law bans new bulk product loading or unloading facilities. Kristl, who directs the Environmental and Natu­ral Resources Law Clinic at Widener University, in­dicated that DNREC’s air permit decision opened the door for a challenge to the new offloading com­plex, built outside of the area approved for refin­ery operations in the 1971 Coastal Zone Act. PBF has said rail deliv­ery of low-cost North American crude is a cru­cial part of the company’s effort to make Delaware City profitable. 

From Tuesday ~ Refinery seeks dismissal of environmental challenges

“Federal courts have regularly found” that in­terstate commerce law pre-empts state attempts to regulate rail carrier loading and property de­livery, the refinery’s filing said. The company’s posi­tion included a supporting letter from Norfolk South­ern Corp., which provides crude-by-rail deliveries to Delaware City. The refinery’s objec­tions also argued that the environmental groups had failed to show they were harmed by the Depart­ment of Natural Re­sources and Environmen­tal Control decisions or company’s actions, and said that the Coastal Zone board had no authority to consider appeals from an air permit proceeding.

With comment rescues ~ 

- - So, interstate commerce trumps the Coastal Zone Act? Tell me how that works, please. This is just another bullying tactic by this "we can do no wrong" refining company, PBF. Someone needs to check into their safety record, say, in their California facilities, before giving them carte blanche permission to do whatever they want. This is yet another example of their "community be damned" attitude. They show absolutely no desire to work within the community towards a cleaner, safer facility. 

- - This is the exact challenge that was made back in the 70's by Shell and DuPont which failed in the courts. There is precedent that they are either not aware of or choose to ignore. Toxic Jack probably already has the fix in as the board is made up of his lackeys anyway. The law is the law and it will not be waived retro-actively just because the refinery paid out huge sums to Jack's PA 

- - Drive by the refinery and look to see how many DE plates are on the cars. Nearly half are from out of state. How does this support our economy here in the state? And yes, I do drive a car. We all do. Do I drive it conservatively? You betcha. In three years worth of driving, my car has less than 30,000 miles on it. And 80% of those miles were used to transport my aging parents to doctors and hospitals. So before you use that lame "driving cars" lament, you should realize that some of us are very responsible when it comes to the use of fossil fuels. Not to mention that this has nothing to do with jobs, it has to do with preserving the Coastal Zone Act, and the health and safety of residents along the rail routes so that we are protected from a tragedy such as the one in Canada, where residents were vaporized. 

- - Look at the four recent rail accidents and you have the results of increased oil traffic. This company was already given illegal and massive environmental breaks in order to set up shop. They are being bad citizens once again, and need to be shut down despite the loss of a few jobs. 

- - Remember back in the early 2000s when they released a bunch of sodium hydroxide into the creeks surrounding the refinery? Massive fish-kill event? I think it was owned by Motiva then? 

- - You know what?There would be a Lot more Jobs if PBF implemented actual safety measures and strict emission standards like they do in, say every other country, we here all care about all Delawareans. We want air we can actually breathe and noncancerous water. PBF really doesn't care two pieces of fecal matter. Delaware City is a beautiful town.The tragedy in Quebec in almost unthinkable.is that something we will have to Get Used To? Every day dirty oil is spilled somewhere in the world.Once it is spilled, it destroys land and water. Jack Markell, what are you doing?

And from facebook ~ Notgreenparty Delaware

In a sign of how significant a ruling against the refinery would be, state Chamber of Commerce President Joan Verplanck has suggested tolerance if mistakes were made at Delaware City.
http://www.delawareonline.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=2013130625014&gcheck=1

Coastal Zone board to hear arguments against refinery expansion A high-stakes appeal threatens to stunt the sprawling Delaware City Refinery’s rail complex and lucrative ties to low-cost North American crude oil supplies, with a state board scheduled to hear concerns about the operation on July 16.

 - -If you're a Sierra Club member and you are directly affected by the rail expansion in the Coastal Zone you should submit an affidavit for the July 16 hearing. We have a template you could use - email Stephanie.Herron@sierraclub.org

 - - I would like to take a poll of who lives within even 10 miles! Many people are tolerant if they don't think they will be negatively impacted. It is sad that only when people are directly impacted they become active! I understand, so many people are sooo busy, but what are they leaving behind for their children? I would like to go but the meeting is at 9:30a and I usually don't get off my machines until after 10:30. Mornings are difficult... but if my condition could be of help I would sure try 

 - - Even when it's not in your back yard it still comes to your back yard. We have to wake up to pollution! It never stays in one place!

And more today from Harry Gravell ~ Dishonest tactics being used to smear Delaware City Refining Co

I am baffled and becoming more aggravated with the tactics being used against the Delaware City Refining Co. by the environmental activists and those who allow and sup­port their unethical and dis­honest behavior.

The continuous attacks truly distort the environ­mental im­provements that have been implemented at the refinery since being purchased by PBF Energy.
The refinery has received previously approved permits for projects that significantly reduce refinery emissions, a fact that activists purposefully omit in their appeals to further support their agenda. 

The refinery has reduced its environmental footprint by shutting down inefficient equipment, which further re­duces emissions. Despite those efforts, activ­ist groups consistently oppose refinery permits, even for projects that reduce emissions and water use. Baffling!
As a result of the untruths that were spoken by activist at the Title V hearing, and the fact that every lie was rebut­ted with the truth, the recent announcement that the Dela­ware Chapter of the Sierra Club enlisted the American Civil Liberties Union to in­vestigate a violation of the Freedom of Information Act as a product of the June 4 Title V hearing, is not even shocking, but further proves their idiocy.

They will stop at nothing to delay the issuance of the refin­ery’s Title V permit, which is just a bundling of previously approved air permits into one general permit that is renewed and updated every five years.

They want to argue that there were 2,000 people ex­pected, but the location for the hearing could hold only 200. The pictures I have attached tell the story. See how many activists were in their desig­nated gathering area to listen to the hearing (there were speakers set up outside – a fact they won’t mention!) compared to the number of refinery sup­porters that were in their gath­ering area. Both sides were allowed to have speakers go into the hearing to speak, and then return to the outside loca­tions.

The legal challenge to the rail loop track and the crude transfer permits is also aston­ishing. These groups are driv­ing potential business invest­ments away from Delaware with their antics.From where I’m sitting, it is “ all” about jobs! These unnec­essary and ridiculous chal­lenges against the refinery, my union brothers, its employees, and contractors threaten our livelihood.Since the refinery restarted, employment for the Delaware Trades has improved and from my perspective the new own­ers are more committed to safety, the environment and reliability than prior owners.

Harry Gravell is president of the Building and Construction Trades Councils of Dela­ware.

DELAWARE VOICE

HARRY GRAVELL

With comments ~  

•  - - Harry Gravell is doing his job, he's the paid representative for many of the trades unions working at the refinery. They are good jobs, no dispute. But Harry lends credo to the adage "union thug" when HE distorts facts in such an insulting, derogatory manner.

  
   - - Harry may be doing his job but he's using the same dishonest tactics he's accusing the other side of using against his clients. Many appreciate the need for good paying jobs, but are those jobs more important or valuable than the public's health & safety? Medical care for the treatment of environmentally-related diseases does not cheaply nor will the environmental cleanup be free when the current proprietors eventually pack it in.
•  - - Also ridiculous is his characterization of the ACLU-involved dispute about the open meeting law. John Flahery found an opinion from the AG that if a public hearing is scheduled and the meeting is held where it is known that it will be far too small for the expected attendance, the entity holding the hearing must offer another venue or another date for the hearing. Gavel is simply off-base with his depiction of the facts surrounding this event.

~*~