Even though Superior Mayor Jim Paine has also publicly called on Husky to replace the hydrofluoric acid tanks, he doesn’t have many supporters among Juel’s organization, who say he’s not pushing hard enough for change.
“As the elected official, you have the bully pulpit, you can rally citizens to do things, and he’s not willing to do that,” Juel said.
Duluth Mayor Emily Larson has also asked for removal of the tanks, but Juel said a union official bragged to her that he told Mayor Larson to “shut her mouth” about hydrofluoric acid, because the position wasn’t helpful to the refinery’s unionized employees.
“It was pretty shocking,” she said. “Politics are messy and I was never involved in politics before this.”
Paine, in an interview last week, said he stands by his position on the refinery. He said the risks from hydrofluoric acid get overplayed, when a much greater risk is a conventional explosion at the refinery.
“It’s just not the main safety risk,” he said of hydrofluoric acid.
Paine said in an interview that even if someone was burned with hydrofluoric acid, the city’s ambulance service could treat them with calcium carbonate that they carry onboard.
A representative from Gold Cross Ambulance Service, the city’s provider, said the ambulances don’t carry calcium carbonate, however, and Paine later walked back his statement.
“My estimation of the risk is not a professional one, nor should it be portrayed that way,” he said in a follow-up e-mail.
Paine, who’s running unopposed for re-election on Tuesday, said he doesn’t hear about hydrofluoric acid fears from constituents when he’s out door-knocking.
“It does come up; it’s relatively rare,” he said. “Sometimes I hear that we need to get the refinery reopened, or that we can’t lose the refinery.”
On an earnings call last month, Husky Energy officials said the refinery was being rebuilt “in much the same configuration as it was before,” and that after it reopens, they anticipate processing more oil than in the past thanks to fewer interruptions.
The company also reported an insurance payment of approximately $350?million for property damage, business interruption, clean up and rebuilding costs.
*Original article online at http://www.startribune.com/residents-wary-of-superior-wis-oil-refinery-rebuild/507892931/