Evansville Refinery
During the early 1920's, The Texas Company opened a refinery in Evansville, Wyoming. Years later the company name was changed to Texaco, and by 2001 they had merged with Chevron Corporation to become the ChevronTexaco Corporation.
The Texas Company operated the plant from 1923 until 1982, when they chose to shut the facility down. Many years later the company had to revisit their operating procedures, as environmental groups discovered that many of the policies that had been in affect while the facility was in use were in direct violation of the Clean Water Act.
The environmental group, The Sierra Club, originally filed a complaint with the company that was now known as Texaco in 1993. The claim was that Texaco had dumped pollutants into the North Platte River after the plant had been shut down. The requested action was to stop any future pollution as well as to take steps to clean up the contaminated areas.
By 1996 Texaco had begun a program to clean up the area and ensure it was brought up to the desired level of safety standards. Old standing equipment was removed, and soil that was contaminated was disposed of. The next step was the building of a large dam-like structure called a Waterloo Barrier that would protect the water in the North Platte River and keep it free of dangerous toxins.
These efforts were not the first that plant owners had to undertake in order to ensure proper healthcare measures were taken at the plant. While it was still in operation, the facility utilized a variety of products that were produced with a material called asbestos. At the time this was a commonly used and well accepted material, but asbestos proved to be a very hazardous substance. It is made up of tiny fibers, and when those fibers break apart they get into the air where they can be inadvertently inhaled. Once this happens the fibers can do tremendous internal damage, including being the cause of respiratory disorders and a cancerous disease called mesothelioma. Mesothelioma has been in the news quite a bit recently, as class action lawsuits are brought forth against companies that knowingly allowed asbestos products to stay within work areas where employees would be exposed to the toxic material.
Although the Texaco owned facility was shut down in 1982, Evansville does still have an oil refinery that is currently in operation. Sinclair Oil, perhaps best known for their logo which features a large green dinosaur, now operates a smaller facility at the site of the old Texaco refinery. The company, which produces their own gasoline products that are sold at Little America stations, is capable of producing up to 24,500 barrels of crude oil during any full day of plant operation.
Last modified: December 09, 2009.
