Exxon /Mobil has been polluting the Mystic River for years with little fear of retribution because dollars, not lives, are what people are concerned with.
The oil storage station in Everett, just north of Boston, has been the subject of scrutiny from regulators and environmentalists for years. According to the lawsuit, that was won in 2016 when the Conservation Law Foundation (CLF) filed a lawsuit in 2016 arguing Exxon’s site has been polluting surrounding waters for years. It is also woefully unprepared for climate risks and threatens to spill oil into nearby communities and the Mystic River in the event of severe weather.
the facility routinely discharges pollutants above legal limits in the rivers during storms. In 2006, the station spilled 15,000 gallons of diesel and kerosene into the Mystic River, forcing the company to plead guilty to violating the Clean Water Act and pay a $6.1 million fine. Two huge swaths of land along the Mystic River in Everett are being primed for redevelopment. According to the Boston Globe. Many Everett residents a suburb of Boston are voicing their opinion on how the land should be used once the serial polluters are ousted.140 acres of land many say could transform their City much like Encore Boston Harbor did for Boston proper. Stakeholders want to ensure that this land is used to benefit Everett. Exxon was battered with pressure from a Conservation Law Foundation (CLF) lawsuit, since 2020 ExxonMobil has ceased operations at its Everett, MA tank farm and is selling the site to a developer.
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“Exxon giving up on the Everett site was a major win,” said CLF President Bradley Campbell. “But this sale will not allow the company to escape responsibility for its toxic legacy of contamination and the ongoing pollution that will continue while the sale is pending. Exxon is pure evil when it comes to climate change. Exxon leadership recognized that fossil fuels were impacting the climate as early as 1969. But Exxon saw dollar signs instead of disaster in our changing climate, taking steps to capitalize on melting Arctic ice and the oil reserves now accessible because of it, while at the same time funding climate denial organizations to confuse the public about the impending reality. Now deaths from heat waves, fires, flooding and storms is part of our everyday conversation and it's only going to get worse while Exxon and companies like it control the narratives.
Many citizens would like to see 21st century jobs for residents, hotels, restaurants, and venues that would bring life to that part of the city and compliment Encore. With the size of the land, the opportunities are endless. The city has unveiled a neighborhood plan for about 140 acres between Interstate 93 and the Mystic River, which includes the recently-built Assembly Row complex, as well as the larger, more traditional big-box retail and light industrial areas that still surround it. It calls for roughly one-third of the area to be used as housing, one third as office and other commercial space, and one quarter as open space with taller buildings along the highway and river, as well as mid-rise developments in between.
Lets hope they add some green spaces in those plans and try to clean the river as well. Today, most oil companies shy away from denying climate science outright, It's too apparent that doing so would be a blatant lie, but they continue to fight fossil fuel controls and promote themselves as clean energy leaders even though they still put the vast majority of their investments into fossil fuels and sadly if we don’t switch over to renewable energy we could end up the fossils!.
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