Marathon Oil approved for $1.9-billion expansion in Detroit

Tina Lam, June 20, 2008, Freep.com -- Marathon Oil, which operates Michigan's only refinery, won permission today from state environmental officials for its planned $1.9-billion expansion in southwest Detroit.

Detroit's City Council already approved a package of $176 million in tax exemptions and the company has already held a job fair.

The company made a number of pledges to try to reduce the effect of extra particulate matter the refinery will emit in an area already thick with factories.

The Department of Environmental Quality said it approved the necessary air permits for the expansion because of those promises, including street sweeping of paved roads in the area to keep particulates off the streets, retrofitting Detroit school buses to capture particulate matter from diesel exhaust so children aren't as heavily exposed as they otherwise would be, and maintaining four air monitoring stations near the refinery, making the data public.

Marathon has also promised that 51% of the 135 permanent jobs at the expanded refinery will be set aside for Detroit residents.

The $1.9-billion expansion will add 15% capacity, from 100,000 barrels of oil per day to 115,000 barrels, to accommodate tar sands oil from Canada.

The company acknowledged in the past that the expansion will increase air emissions by 10% over current levels, still below state and federal requirements.

At hearings on the tax breaks and air permits, some residents of southwest Detroit said no more industry should be located in their area because it's already jammed with pollution-producing factories. Others said the jobs were crucial to the city.

Marathon has said it hoped to have the expansion on line by the end of 2010.