Residents Protest Refinery Unit

At an emotional special meeting of the Carson City Council, neighbors of the Fletcher oil refinery complained that a vacuum distillation unit, which would produce asphalt, threatens to add more pollution to the southwest corner of the city.

The $16-million unit is under construction with completion scheduled for this summer. It is the second phase of a refinery modernization project begun in 1978 that was put off for years because of financial difficulties.

Residents also complained that the original Environmental Impact Report for the project, written more than a decade ago, said nothing about asphalt production and that neighbors were not informed when Fletcher revived plans last year to construct the facility.

Fletcher representatives said at the meeting that the unit will have no significant impact on air quality and that operating the still to make the heavy oil required for asphalt will result in lower air pollution than if the unit were used to produce high-sulfur fuel oil.

City Atty. Glenn Watson said a preliminary examination of the issue indicates that the conditional-use permit approved for the project in 1978 remains valid.

The council is scheduled to consider whether to require additional environmental reports on May 2.