Today we sat in on a public hearing about Petroleum Coke concerning Detroit Bulk Storage. For those of you who have not seen the video and article yet, some people captured on video a huge cloud of petcoke in the air when the epoxy sealant to “control” the dust was broken for shipping and it was immediately picked up by U.S. Rep Gary Peters.
Detroit Bulk Storage, responsible for storing the petcoke, and its representatives came under a lot of heat from the Land Use Committee today because of their negligent practices concerning the containment of petcoke. They’re looking to obtain a permit to continue storing petcoke there. The storage facility currently holds 10,000 tons of petcoke and can hold up to a max capacity of around 125,000-140,000 tons in the winter months. Contrary to the article, the issue with the growing piles according to Detroit Bulk Storage reps is that they have no control over outgoing shipments nor incoming shipments. So whereas they can be receiving shipments of petcoke every week, their outgoing shipments aren’t nearly as regular. With five outgoing shipments in June, they’ve dropped to one shipment in July and will also only be expecting one shipment in August. The rate of incoming shipments exceed the rate of shipments leaving which causes another huge problem because when they do reach full capacity they still don’t stop incoming shipments. Add those concerns to the recent uproar about the petcoke dust cloud and you can see why the public made sure to be such a presence at today’s public hearing.
