Farmland Industries

In 1929, when six local cooperatives in Colorado, Kansas and Missouri pooled their orders for petroleum products to obtain lower prices under the leadership of Howard A. Cowden, Union Oil Company was born. It was serving 22 local cooperatives within one year and by 1935 had changed its name to Consumers Cooperative Association (CCA) to reflect its diversification into non-petroleum products and services. However, at the 10-year mark, CCA still derived over 80 percent of its income from oil-related products.

In 1939, CCA became the first US cooperative association to own a petroleum refinery. Its facility in Phillipsburg, Kansas, processed 3,500 barrels of crude oil per day. It later purchased another refinery in Coffeyville, Kansas, that had been built in 1906 by the National Refining Company of Cleveland, Ohio.

CCA's name was changed in 1966 to Farmland Industries, and by the time the company celebrated its 50th anniversary in 1979, Farmland was one of the biggest farmer-owned cooperatives in the country. During its history, Farmland Industries operated a number of subsidiaries that were involved in petroleum-related activities, including Farmers Petroleum, Inc.; Pipeline Company; and Farmland Transportation, Inc.

Environmental and Financial Troubles

In 2002, the US Environmental Protection Agency and Kansas Department of Health and Environment accused Farmland of violating the Clean Air Act and state air pollution control regulations, saying the company had failed to install appropriate emissions controls when it increased the refinery's capacity from 71,000 to 125,000 barrels per day in the 1990s. Negotiations with the US Justice Department, EPA and KDHE were interrupted, however, by Farmland's bankruptcy in 2003.

In 2004 federal bankruptcy court oversaw the sale of Farmland's petroleum refinery in Coffeyville as well as its terminal in Phillipsburg to Coffeyville Resources. Coffeyville agreed to ensure that the refineries reduce emissions of VOCs (volatile organic compounds), particulates and benzene. It also agreed to clean up releases of hazardous waste at the facilities.

Farmland Industries and Asbestos

For most of the last century, asbestos was chosen as an insulator when fire or temperature extremes were a danger. As a result, it was not uncommon for oil refineries like those owned by Farmland Industries to be constructed with materials that contained asbestos. A lesser-known property of some types of the fibrous mineral is their resistance to reactive chemicals. As a result, asbestos was used in safety garments and bench and counter tops. Asbestos, however, had a significant downside that was either not understood or at times deliberately ignored: debilitating and sometimes fatal medical conditions were found to be the result of asbestos exposure.

Most of this asbestos was amosite. The brownish pigment of amosite is a result of iron molecules in its chemical composition; this also makes amosite resistant to corrosive substances like those produced in oil refineries. Used for many years in the form of asbestos transite in labs, oil refineries and chemical plants throughout the country, amosite was finally prohibited from use as a construction material in the 1970s.

Asbestos transite had qualities like cement; it could be sprayed onto ductwork and pipes and laminated. As long as it was solid, this form of asbestos posed no immediate risk. With age, however, asbestos-containing transite becomes prone to becoming powdery, allowing microscopic particles to float into the atmosphere. Asbestos when it is in this state is called friable, a term that is used to describe materials that are easy to pulverize. The insulation lining of laboratory kilns also often contained friable asbestos.

Why Friable Asbestos Is Bad

Friable asbestos is a problem because in this state the particles are easily released into the atmosphere. Medical conditions like asbestosis and cancer are known to result from being exposed to airborne asbestos. In addition, exposure to asbestos has been shown to be the leading causal factor of mesothelioma, a rare but often lethal cancer of the mesothelium, which is the lining between the lungs and the chest cavity. Ingestion of asbestos fibers, as happens when those tiny particles float in the air and fall on food or in beverages, can be the cause of pericardial or peritoneal mesothelioma.

Because medical research yielded a better understanding of asbestos' serious effects on human health, employees today enjoy the protection of strict laws regulating the use of asbestos. However, when oil refineries like Farmland Industries' facilities in Kansas were constructed, asbestos was more commonplace. Any asbestos that remains from then may still pose danger if safety procedures are not followed during remodeling and demolition projects.

A Time Bomb

In contrast to typical job-related injuries, which are readily observed and known about soon after the causing incident, asbestos-related diseases can take many, many years to develop. It can also be challenging to diagnose asbestos-related illnesses because the symptoms can be mistaken for the symptoms of other, less serious conditions. It is vital, therefore, that men and women that were employed by or lived around plants like Farmland Industries ask their health care professionals for mesothelioma information. New therapies for the cancer like mesothelioma surgery are being discovered, and early detection provides patients and their doctors the best chance of overcoming the previously deathly form of cancer.

Sources

Ben Eckhart - Coffeyville, Kansas Refinery
http://www.enarco.com/refinery.htm

Funding Universe - Farmland Industries, Inc.
http://www.fundinguniverse.com/company-histories/Farmland-Industries-Inc-Company-History.html

Nebraska Energy Office - 'Terrible Terry' and the Birth of Oil Refining
http://www.neo.ne.gov/fall97/fall97_03.htm

University of Wisconsin - Asbestos Containing Material (ACM) - Laboratories and Shops
http://www.uwm.edu/Dept/EHSRM/ASB/acmimages3.html

University of Wisconsin - Asbestos Disposal
http://www.uwm.edu/Dept/EHSRM/HAZEXCEPTIONS/a.html

US Department of Justice - Kansas Refinery Agrees to Bring Two Facilities into Compliance
http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_pjus/is_200403/ai_3618132495/