Clark Oil Refinery near Blue Island, IL

(Satellite)

The refinery was next to Blue Island, not in it. It appears to have done a good job of staying out of the surronding suburbs. I assume industries do that to lower their property taxes.

The tank farms still exist.

Google Earth, Nov 2002

Michael Brandt posted
I took some pictures of the old Clark Oil refinery in Blue Island shortly before they demolished it in 2004.
Chuck Mager: I was on the IHB crew that hauled several cars loaded with some of the cracking towers from here headed to somewhere in Louisiana. Very large "dimensional" loads!!!!🚂🚂
Billy Shockey: Anyone who lived in that area within a date to date, received a check for $11,000 in a class action lawsuit. People got a lot of funky different diseases from being too close to that refinery.
[In 2005, the refinery company had to pay $120m for 6,000 residents. (Does that mean the lawyers walked away with $9,000 per resident? No. $80m was compensatory and $40m was punitive. [ChicagoTribune] I wonder who gets the $40m.) And the "jury also awarded $100,000 to about 1,200 former students and staff from nearby Eisenhower High School affected by pollutants discharged in 1994." (The $100k may have been for just the four dozen students who were taken to the hospital complaining of dizziness and breathing discomfort. Or did the company have to pay $120m twice?) [chron]
In 2008, "A $120 million judgment against owners of the former, now-shuttered Clark Oil refinery was reinstated Monday when the Illinois appeals court reversed a Cook County judge's unusual decision to dissolve the class-action suit after a verdict was reached." [ChicagoTribune] (One wonders what that judge got paid for his unusual decision.)]

Michael Brandt posted
Another picture I took of the Clark Oli Refinery in Blue Island shortly before it was demolished.

It is mostly gone by Apr 2005.

Google Earth, Apr 2005

Clark Oil bought Great Lakes Refinery in 1945 (or 1942 according to ReferenceForBusiness) and changed its name in 1954. In 1951, they added the first giant cracker. A second cracker was added in 1956 as part of a $5m expansion from 21,000 barrels a day to 30,000. [LivingHistoryOfIllinois, p167]

 

WorthPoint
PRESS PHOTO CLARK OIL & REFINING CORPORATION'S BLUE ISLAND REFINERY IN ILLINOIS

The retail business and the Clark brand name were sold in 1999 and Premcor owns the oil refineries.  This refinery specialized in producing premium gas because that is the only grade that Cla6k sold. Clark was bought by Apex in 1981, which went bankrupt in Dec 1987. Horsham gained control in the early 1990s and "invested some $300 million in its two refineries, updating equipment and redesigning to conform to new environmental regulations." In addition to this refinery, the other refinery Clark owned back then was in Hartford, IL. [ReferenceForBusiness]

On Dec 23, 1986, "an explosion and fire rocked a south suburban Chicago oil refinery Tuesday afternoon, severely burning three people and shooting 'balls of flame' 300 feet in the air, officials said." [upi]

PastPerfectOnline
A photo of the Dec 23, 1986, fire.

 

Michael Brandt posted
Another pic I took of the Clark Oil refinery in Blue Island shortly before it was demolished in 2004.

Michael Brandt posted
The environmental clean up guys working at the Clark oil Refinery in Blue Island prepping for the demolition. pic taken in 2004 by Yours Truly.

 

Michael Brandt posted
Another pic by Yours Truly of the Clark Oil Refinery in Blue Island taken shortly before it's demolition, dig them cool classic industrial lights.

 

Michael Brandt posted
Another pic I took in 2003 of the Clark Oil Refinery in Blue Island shortly before they demolished it. It was such an interesting looking place to drive by.
Tom Siniawski: They shipped it all to Lake Charles Louisiana on the IHB and UP.
Michael Brandt posted again
Scott Wesley: A few fires there in the past.

A worker was killed in Mar 1995; and, 14 years later, the value of the father of two young children was determined to be $6m. [CorboyDemetrio]

A Mar 14, 1995, Chicago Tribune article reported that two workers were killed and that another was in critical condition because of burns. This article also talks about the 1986 fire.

Actually, the families of both killed workers got $6m. [HealyScanlon]

July 31, 1997: "Syd Wiley, manager of human resources for Clark, has to have one of the toughest jobs imaginable. As the refinery’s liaison to the community, he’s been saddled with the responsibility of explaining the refinery’s history of explosions, toxic emissions, and safety violations to the increasingly suspicious and angry residents of the neighborhood–many of whom simply want to see Clark shut down." [ChicagoReader] I didn't read much of this article because it is long. But it seems that Syd's main qualification was that he could lie with a poker face.

The refinery had a fire on Dec 24, 1999 and an explosion on Jan 29, 2000. "The refinery has been plagued by fires, explosions and pollution releases in recent years and is the focus of a lawsuit in which the state alleges multiple pollution violations." [GreenSpun]

In 2003, Ronald Snook, former environmental manager at Premcor's now-closed refinery at Blue Island, IL, was sent to jail for 21 months for "conspiring to violate the Clean Water Act and conceal the infractions." And their pollution was not confined to water. "The refinery frequently emitted clouds of dust over the surrounding community, including a June 2000 episode that coated an eight-block area with up to 2 inches of spent catalyst, a sandlike material containing metal compounds." [RefineryReform] 

In 2004 "Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan sued Premcor last year seeking to require it to clean up soil and groundwater contaminants with oversight by the Illinois Environmental Protection Agency. The lawsuit listed 64 incidents between 1992 and 2001 in which the Clark refinery leaked gasoline, oil or dye into the ground." [chron]