In fact, I imagine some people in Delaware would have been better off without that stinking refinery in their midst. I have no scientific background to judge how much damage is done to human health by the pollution that the Delaware City refinery from time to time pumps into air and water. I have heard scientists say no one is sure how much pollution any individual can withstand. It must be acknowledged that automobiles and trucks are responsible for most of the emissions that threaten the lives of people living on the Interstate 95 axis. Illegal as well as legal emissions from the refineries surely must take their toll.
People die because of auto emissions.
Some may be killed by legal and illegal emissions from oil refineries. It may be a slap on the wrist for Motiva. But it is a knee to the groin of the public. Pollution, legal and otherwise, became a personal matter to me 13 years ago after my son died of lymphatic cancer at the age of 25 and I asked the doctor why. That, I think, might have made the late J. Paul Getty an environmentalist too.