Cotton Valley Refinery
Calumet Lubricants owns and operates the oil refinery located in Cotton Valley, Louisiana. The company owns several facilities in the Louisiana area, and their Cotton Valley site produces up to 13,000 barrels of crude oil on a daily basis. This plant was originally built in the 1930's, and has been going through a recent expansion plan to increase the size of the plant and the amount of product it produces. More than 100 million gallons of petroleum product are stored on the refinery grounds.
As with so many other locations throughout Louisiana, the Cotton Valley refinery was affected by Hurricane Katrina in 2005. Flooding and high winds caused damage to the facility, and it was temporarily shut down following the storm. Before the plant was brought back up to full operating capacity, investigators were called in to examine all of the equipment throughout the plant to make sure it was fully functional and safe to use. It was also checked to make sure emissions regulators and pollution controls were operating properly and that all storage tanks were not damaged.
Long before Hurricane Katrina, the refinery faced another potentially disastrous situation. Many of the products that were used within the work place came with an unexpected side effect; the ability to make employees very sick. These products contained asbestos, which was a common ingredient in industrial and other items for many years before it was recognized as a toxic material. When the items that contained asbestos would eventually start to fall apart, trace amounts of the toxin would float freely in the air, where it could be inhaled by anyone. Once this happened, the asbestos would lodge internally and do intense damage to the victim's respiratory system. It also has the ability to develop into a form of cancer called mesothelioma, which can be deadly. Every person who worked around items that included asbestos should notify their healthcare provider as soon as possible.
Officials from Calumet Lubricants have displayed a concern regarding the safety of their Cotton Valley facility for their employees, the community and the environment. In 2006 a fire burned at a refinery in Providence, Rhode Island, and in the aftermath a safety specialist was called in to instruct plant workers on how to react and respond to any workplace fire. One representative from Calumet was sent to Rhode Island to be involved in the conference and learn about better ways to protect against a fire or to deal with one should the need arise. Calumet executives have also petitioned the state's Office of Environmental Services for the proper permits that would allow them to upgrade their safety equipment, replace storage tanks with newer models, include new emission controls and purchase a new power generator, which was considered to be a necessity following the problems brought on by Hurricane Katrina.
Last modified: December 09, 2009.
