Good Neighbors

From a couple Saturdays ago:

Detroit Bulk Storage, the company responsible for storing the pet coke, did not return calls from the Star on Wednesday.
A company spokesman told the Windsor Star that the dust cloud was caused by high winds that blew in just as inventory was being loaded onto a ship. The company uses an epoxy seal to contain the dust, but the seal has to be broken to load the material onto the vessel, he said.

The pet coke piles were produced at Marathon Petroleum’s refinery in Detroit and are owned by Koch Carbon, a company owned by the American billionaire Koch brothers, famed for their support of conservative political causes.

Detroit billionaire Matty Moroun’s real-estate entity, Crown Enterprises, owns the property where pet coke is being stored. But according to Crown Enterprises president Michael Samhat, Norfolk Southern has a perpetual lease for the land, and is responsible for subcontracting its use.

Detroit Bulk announced earlier this month that it has stopped accepting shipments of pet coke. Koch Carbon, which did not respond to a request for comment, has said that it plans to store the pet coke in another, as yet unnamed, state.

Brad Wurfel, spokesman for the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality (MDEQ), said pet coke, which is nearly pure carbon, is non-toxic. But MDEQ has long had concerns about the impact of “fugitive dust in the air” unleashed when the product is loaded onto barges.

I don't think that dust can be harmless, but Koch Carbon isn't storing any pet coke near me, so I probably don't have to worry as much as the folks in Windsor.