By Kate Wilson  Willamette Week   July 10, 2014

http://www.wweek.com/portland/blog-31845-new_report_says_tesoros_track_record_raises_

safety_pollution_concerns_about_proposed_plant_on_columb.html

Here are a few things Sightline points to that might cause residents to raise an eyebrow:

• “Willful” violations in Anacortes refinery fire: After a deadly 2010 refinery fire in Anacortes killed seven workers, state and federal investigators blasted Tesoro, calling the company “complacent” about safety and issuing 39 citations of “willful” indifference to hazards at the site.
• One facility, 4,000 clean air violations: The EPA says that Tesoro violated the Clean Air Act no fewer than 4,000 times at a single refinery in North Dakota and hundreds more times at other refinery locations. The company is among the top 100 toxic polluters nationally.
• Oil spills and secrecy: When a Tesoro pipeline burst in 2013, the company did not bother to inform the affected landowner, who only discovered the spill after he noticed crude oil bubbling six inches high around the tires of his combine.
• Hostility to safety investigators: Tesoro barred the gates to federal safety investigators after a burst pipe at a California refinery sprayed two workers in the face with sulfuric acid. Though the workers were helicoptered to a hospital and treated for burns, Tesoro called its employees’ injuries “minor.”