Ultramar Diamond

The McKee complex located in Sunray, Texas, was the original oil refinery constructed by the company which would come to be called Ultramar Diamond. The Texas oil refinery was built in 1933 to refine oil into gasoline for Diamond's only service station in the state.

Throughout the years, Diamond - which would later be known as Ultramar Diamond - concentrated on building service stations and producing natural gas. Its oil refinery at Sunray continued operations but did not focus on refined oil products. However, demand on its total production of both chemical and petroleum products led to an expansion of the McKee refinery in the 1960s. This occurred along with the construction of several pipelines from the site to transport refined goods throughout the state. Up until the 1970s, the McKee complex only devoted 20 percent of its output to refined petroleum production, with the other 80 percent chemicals.

Dangers at the Refinery

Things have not always been safe at the Ultramar Diamond McKee oil refinery.

In 2007, an explosion rocked the refinery, resulting in a fire and injuring 19. The other 400 workers at the refinery were evacuated before any deaths occurred. The explosion happened when a pipe froze and was left unattended. Damage to uninsulated support materials led to the collapse of bridges used to support pipelines.

Three storage tanks holding 53,000 pounds of chlorine, used at the refinery to purify water, failed to withstand the force of the fire, and the toxic chlorine could have killed emergency responders or employees had the release occurred before the refinery was completely evacuated.

Ultramar Diamond McKee oil refinery and Asbestos

Whenever excessive heat or combustion was a danger, various forms of asbestos were the insulating material of choice during most of the 1900s. Oil refineries such as the Ultramar Diamond McKee oil refinery, as a result, were often constructed with materials that contained asbestos. One of the other properties of various kinds of the fibrous mineral is that they resist chemicals. As a result, asbestos was utilized in safety clothing, work surfaces and lab equipment. One of the ironic things with asbestos is that although it does a great job of protecting lives and property from the harm done by extreme heat and combustion - it is one of the best insulators known and has been used for this purpose throughout history - it also poses serious risks to people's health.

Much of the asbestos was of the amosite variety. Frequently called "brown asbestos", the amphibole form of asbestos known as amosite is especially resistant to acidic substances like those used in oil refineries because of the iron molecules in its chemical composition. This amosite, in the form of asbestos-containing transite, was utilized in laboratories, oil refineries and chemical plants across the US for decades before being banned as a construction material in the 1970s.

Asbestos transite could be molded into working surfaces, laminated and sprayed onto pipes and ductwork just like cement could. Generally, new items built with transite were considered innocuous because the asbestos particles were trapped in the transite. With age, however, asbestos-containing transite grows prone to becoming powdery, enabling microscopic fibers to flake off into the atmosphere. When it is in this state, it is said to be friable, a term used for material that is easy to pulverize. Industrial kilns also frequently were constructed with friable asbestos as part of their insulation linings.

The Dangers of Friable Asbestos

Friable asbestos is hazardous since in this state the particles can be easily released into the air. Breathing asbestos particles can lead to conditions like asbestosis. Mesothelioma, a rare but almost always deadly disease affecting the mesothelium (the tissue that lies between the lungs and the chest cavity), has been shown to be linked with inhaling asbestos. Ingestion of asbestos fibers, which happens when those microscopic particles enter the air and settle on food or in beverages, can result in pericardial or peritoneal mesothelioma.

Mounting pressure from medical researchers, the media and concerned citizens led to rules controlling how to use asbestos. Asbestos use was much more prevalent, however, when facilities such as the Ultramar Diamond McKee oil refinery were first operating. And even now, asbestos from long ago can cause problems when it is released during demolition jobs.

Asbestos Exposure - a Hidden Danger

Asbestos-related diseases, in contrast to many on-the-job injuries, which are readily observed and known about soon after the incident, can take ten, twenty, or even thirty years to manifest. It can also be hard to identify asbestos-related diseases because the symptoms can be mistaken for the symptoms of other conditions. Therefore, it is vital for all that worked at or spent much time near facilities like the Ultramar Diamond McKee oil refinery to ask their health care professionals for a mesothelioma treatment guide. Experimental treatments for the disease are being discovered and aim to develop a mesothelioma cure, and early detection provides patients the highest chance of beating the once always-fatal disease.

Sources

Amarillo.com - U.S. Chemical Board Safety Release
http://www.amarillo.com/stories/070908/new_refineryrelease.shtml

BreakingNews - Explosion at West Texas Oil Refinery
http://www.breakingnews.ie/archives/2007/0217/world/cwsnideymhsn/

Mark Odnitz - Diamond Shamrock
http://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/online/articles/DD/dod3.html

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