Area of Interest
Area of Interest: Former Sunoco/PES Refinery Site Billboard publicly sited research materials related to the future of the former Sunoco/Philadelphia Energy Solutions (PES) refinery site. It was viewable from June 2-28, 2021 on the I-76 in Philadelphia, driving westbound towards the Grays Ferry neighborhood. It could also be seen from Wharton Street, just north of the former Sunoco/PES Refinery site's AOI-8.
Since a catastrophic explosion led to the permanent closure of the Sunoco/Philadelphia Energy Solutions refinery in 2019, the refinery site has been undergoing remediation by Sunoco’s Evergreen Resources Group and Hilco Redevelopment Partners. At 1,300 acres, the largest un-redeveloped brownfield in Philadelphia is highly desirable for redevelopment, even with a long remediation timeline and limits on its future land use as required by partial remediation. It was the East Coast’s largest oil refinery.
The health burdens of the long-standing refinery’s toxic legacy, cleanup, and future plans continue to impact fenceline communities; who are predominantly Black and low-income, and whose lives have already been shaped by proximity to the refinery. Environmental justice activists, including Mr. Reeves of Resident Action Committee 2, who is quoted, continue to demand accountability and transparency about the refinery’s toxic legacy, and remaining chemical contamination like EPA-actionable levels of the cancer-causing VOC benzene.
Figure 1: Former PES Refinery Site (Replica Map)
Source: Philadelphia Refinery Operations, a series of Evergreen Resources Group, LLP, from the Philadelphia Refinery Legacy Remediation website.
Figure 2: Quote from Mr. Charles Reeves (Excerpt)
Source: Mr. Charles Reeves, interviewed by Maggie McNulty for Schuylkill River & Urban Waters Research Corps Archive's Grays Ferry Oral Histories Project.
Figure 3: Eastern Cottonwood (Populus deltoides W. Bartram ex Marshall)
Pressed herbarium specimen of the Eastern Cottonwood tree (Populus deltoides W.Bartram ex Marshall), from the Atlas of Florida Plants. It can be used to phytoremediate petroleum and benzene contamination. Bartram’s Garden is just across the Schuylkill River from AOI-8 and adjacent to the Bartram Village housing complex.
Figure 4: View from the Passayunk Bridge of the former Sunoco Philadelphia Refinery, May 4, 2021
Photograph: Bethany Wiggin
Area of Interest was created with support and participation from Penn Program in Environmental Humanities, Bethany Wiggin and Alexandre Imbot (site research, soil sampling, photography, interviews), subject matter experts Mr. and Mrs. Charles and Tammy Reeves (Resident Action Committee 2) and Miranda Mote, and project management, production research and support provided by Mia D’Avanza and Angela Faranda. Thanks to Mr. Charles Reeves and Maggie McNulty for permission to republish an excerpt from their interview in Schuylkill River & Urban Waters Research Corps Archive's Grays Ferry Oral Histories Project.
Billboard photo credit: Matt Gant