Why did it take 10+ years, and an almost-catastrophic explosion, for Evergreen to come back and engage the public? Why was Evergreen so delinquent in doing the outreach associated with the legal/contracted obligations to this site? Until the massive explosion, the community at large had not heard from them in years and their outreach/engagement was pitiful.

The June 2019 fire at the PES facility does not relate to Evergreen’s Act 2 submittals or public involvement plan.  Since Atlantic/Sunoco purchased the refinery, there have been 21 Act 2 reports submitted and, at the time of each submission (as well as at the time of each of three Notices of Intent to Remediate (NIR) submitted for the property), a letter was sent to the City of Philadelphia and notices appeared in a local newspaper informing the public of each submittal and their opportunity to comment on the submittals. In August 2018, DEP requested that Evergreen revisit the previous public involvement plan with the City of Philadelphia. After a meeting with DEP, EPA and City officials in November 2018, Evergreen began developing the www.phillyrefinerycleanup.info website in preparation for a public meeting. The fire at PES’ facility occurred after this effort was underway, in June of 2019. At that time, Evergreen suggested opening the website prior to announcing a date for a legacy remediation public meeting to allow the agencies to share the website to aid in answering questions that were being posed about Sunoco’s legacy remediation program.