{"id":16245,"date":"2020-04-20T11:06:02","date_gmt":"2020-04-20T15:06:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/workersvoiceus.org\/2020\/04\/20\/2nd-anniversary-of-husky-refinery-fire-the-dangers-continue\/"},"modified":"2020-04-20T11:06:02","modified_gmt":"2020-04-20T15:06:02","slug":"2nd-anniversary-of-husky-refinery-fire-the-dangers-continue","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/workersvoiceus.org\/es\/2020\/04\/20\/2nd-anniversary-of-husky-refinery-fire-the-dangers-continue\/","title":{"rendered":"Second anniversary of Husky refinery fire: The dangers continue"},"content":{"rendered":"

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By LUCAS ALAN DIETSCHE<\/strong><\/p>\n

Several refineries in Louisiana and California have recently exploded and released toxic fumes. These events make the upcoming second anniversary of the Husky refinery explosion and fire in Superior, Wis., even more disconcerting. The Husky anniversary on April 26 is also the anniversary of Chernobyl\u2019s explosion (See Heather Bradford’s April 13 article on the Socialist Resurgence website, \u201cChernobyl fires threaten to unleash radiation\u201d).<\/p>\n

In the aftermath of the Husky explosion\u00a0in\u00a02018,\u00a0the\u00a0plant was also hit with 13 safety violations and fined $83,000 by OSHA.\u00a0 Another settlement made the company pay least $290,000 to replace or retrofit\u00a0wood-burning stoves or furnaces at homes, churches or\u00a0schools\u00a0over\u00a0a\u00a0seven-year\u00a0period. Another\u00a0possibly\u00a0explosion of the deadly Hydrogen Fluoride\u00a0would make the local population of 150,000 people\u00a0injured, sick, or dead.\u00a0Husky locally, nationally, and internationally have been given many chances to clean up their act, but it shows what capitalists are willing to\u00a0lose\u00a0to maintain a sense of hegemony and profits.<\/p>\n

Unfortunately, unlike last year, with three\u00a0local anti-Husky\u00a0events by Socialist Resurgence, Green New Deal\u00a0groups, DSA, Honor the Earth, Anti-Colonial\u00a0Land\u00a0Defense, and other local activists, this year will be met with no resistance. Since last year, Husky has met many\u00a0environmental\u00a0fines, minor problems, as well as more\u00a0safety\u00a0concerns due to COVID-19.<\/p>\n

In June of\u00a02019, Husky\u00a0Energy was fined nearly\u00a03\u00a0million U.S.\u00a0dollars over a pipeline spill\u00a0in 2016.\u00a0Some 60,000 gallons\u00a0were released into the North\u00a0Saskatchewan\u00a0River, with\u00a0a\u00a0$102\u00a0million cleanup\u00a0effort.<\/p>\n

In\u00a0February\u00a02020, BP-Husky agreed to pay $2.\u00a06 million for violating air pollution regulations\u00a0in Oregon and Ohio. The\u00a0U.S.\u00a0Justice Department found many record-keeping problems at a Husky refinery plant\u00a0in regard to pollution requirements.<\/p>\n

Also, in February 2020, Husky\u2019s Superior plant had issues with a large tower during maintenance and rebuilding projects. Workers noted that a \u201cpop\u201d had indicated a defect in the tower\u2019s integrity. Even though the company said that the \u201cpop\u201d of the tower and the possible falling of the tower would present no risk to the community, a large area and a major road was either evacuated or sealed off for a time. This did not stop rebuilding efforts at the Superior facility.<\/p>\n

Months ago,\u00a0due to the price of declining oil, Husky\u00a0said they were cutting \u201cmillions of dollars.\u201d\u00a0Exactly what they were cutting is unclear.\u00a0But due to the need for profits, it is assumed that Husky cut viable safety, maintenance, and labor needs to supervise daily maintenance of the Husky refinery.<\/p>\n

Last month, Husky\u2019s Superior plant suspended reconstruction efforts due to the COVID-19 epidemic. \u201cGiven the current safety and public health risks, Husky has begun a systematic and orderly suspension of major construction activities related to the Superior rebuild project,\u201d spokeswoman Kim Guttormson said. Parts of the plant as well as wastewater treatment, diesel terminals, and gasoline would still operate. There is no information on how many people would continue maintenance work or adhering to their safety measures. It is almost unbelievable that such an important and possibly deadly refinery could not have enough safety personal at the plant.<\/p>\n

In June 2019, another refinery\u2014which is not part of Husky\u2014exploded in Philadelphia, sending 5000 pounds of deadly hydrogen fluoride into the air before being doused. HF is used in many refineries around the country\u2014including in Superior. A piece of shrapnel from the Superior fire narrowly failed to hit a container of HF only 150 feet away. While agitation by environmental activists and neighbors in Philadelphia helped in closing the refinery, the Husky facility in Superior remains in operation.<\/p>\n

Any action to unite labor and climate justice activists has come to naught in the Superior, Wis., and Duluth, Minn., area. The local community of Superior with a population just under 30,000 has been divided over taking part in protests against the refinery since it brings relatively high-paying union jobs. It is up to socialists, environmentally concerned union workers, and climate justice activists to persuade other union activists and families that they have a common interest in bringing in good-paying union jobs that do not cost the health and safety of the environment and community.<\/p>\n

Husky is a ticking time bomb; it has had more than enough chances to prove its so-called safety record. The communities of Duluth and Superior, environmental and labor activists, and Indigenous communities\u00a0must be united to prevent the release of deadly hydrogen\u00a0fluoride in another disaster, and thus avoid an American Chernobyl scenario.<\/p>\n

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By LUCAS ALAN DIETSCHE Several refineries in Louisiana and California have recently exploded and released toxic fumes. These events make the upcoming second anniversary of the Husky refinery explosion and fire in Superior, Wis., even more disconcerting. The Husky anniversary on April 26 is also the anniversary of Chernobyl\u2019s explosion (See Heather Bradford’s April 13 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":13882114,"featured_media":15084,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_crdt_document":"","_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"_wpas_customize_per_network":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[30825],"tags":[30968,31030,27659,31205],"class_list":["post-16245","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-climate-environment","tag-duluth","tag-husky","tag-oil","tag-superior"],"translation":{"provider":"WPGlobus","version":"3.0.2","language":"es","enabled_languages":["en","es"],"languages":{"en":{"title":true,"content":true,"excerpt":false},"es":{"title":false,"content":false,"excerpt":false}}},"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/workersvoiceus.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/thumbnail.png?fit=284%2C177&ssl=1","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pdQxqk-4e1","amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/workersvoiceus.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16245","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/workersvoiceus.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/workersvoiceus.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/workersvoiceus.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/13882114"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/workersvoiceus.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=16245"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/workersvoiceus.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16245\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/workersvoiceus.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/15084"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/workersvoiceus.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16245"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/workersvoiceus.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16245"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/workersvoiceus.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16245"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}