Protect Public Health in the clean-up of the Former Philadelphia Refinery

Click here to make an official comment urging Sunoco to remove as much dangerous lead contamination as possible from the former Philadelphia refinery site.

Click here to view a fact sheet on the remediation of the Philadelphia refinery site.

After a massive explosion in June 2019 led to the closing of the Philadelphia Energy Solutions refinery, the public raised serious concerns about the cleanup of contamination and the future use of the 1,400-acre site. Evergreen, Sunoco’s subsidiary responsible for cleaning up the site, is now accepting public comments about its proposed site-specific cleanup standard for lead (a toxic metal) in soil, as well as an evaluation of contamination in soil and groundwater. It is critical for nearby residents to tell Evergreen and the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) to ensure Evergreen cleans the site to the strictest possible public health standards. The comment period ends on January 14, 2021.

There are a number of serious concerns about Evergreen’s proposed lead standard for surface soil. Lead is a highly toxic chemical known to impair brain function. Evergreen has proposed a site-specific standard that is more than twice the direct contact numeric value for lead in soil, part of Pennsylvania’s statewide health standards. Using this inappropriate value, regulatory agencies would require Evergreen to take corrective action on a much smaller fraction of the site than would be required with the correct value. 

Evergreen’s investigation reports for environmental contamination are flawed in a number of ways. They are supposed to identify the nature and extent of contamination in soils and the movement of contaminants in groundwater to evaluate what needs to be remediated. Evergreen did not consider the impacts of climate change on soil and groundwater contamination at the site. It failed to consider sea-level rise, storm surges, and the increased frequency and volume of events like superstorms. In addition, Evergreen prepared the reports over three years ago and it is not clear whether the data underlying the reports are still reliable.  

Urge Evergreen and the DEP to ensure that public health is protected during the cleanup of the former refinery site.

Click here to read the Council’s full legal comment on the current remediation.

Click here to the Council’s full comments on Pennsylvania’s statewide soil standards.