Stephen Henderson of the Free Press takes on the growing piles of coke along the Detroit riverfront, and its links to local land baron Matty Moroun and the Koch brothers, the wealthy right-wing activists.
If you were to try to come up with the most unsavory combination imaginable of people, product and problems, you’d be hard-pressed to beat: the Koch brothers; the Moroun family; and petroleum coke along the Detroit riverfront.
Somewhere, Dante is giggling.
And here, Detroiters should be crying.
If you live or work anywhere along the west riverfront in Detroit, by now you’ve noticed the growing piles of what looks like soot on property that’s just east of Matty Moroun’s Ambassador Bridge.
Turns out, the stuff is worse than soot, though it’s unclear how much worse. It’s petroleum coke, a by-product of an oil refining process. The Environmental Protection Agency says it’s fine to store, and safe so long as it’s not “disturbed.” It’s clearly waste, though, with a high carbon and sulfur content. And piling it along the river wouldn’t seem to prevent disturbing of it.
