Letter to the Editor - Laurel is doing it right

Editor,

As a kid, growing up in Laurel, Montana, I remember driving by the CHS Refinery. Often the smoke would blanket the highway and it would be difficult for one to see cleary. Not to mention the smell was horrid. The refinery was responsible for a large portion of air pollution in Yellowstone County, and it faced harsh criticism from environmentalists.

Every Laurelite knew that it was impossible to even think about shutting down the refinery. It was and still is the largest source of tax revenue in the county. It was the CHS Refinery that made the construction of the new junior high school and sports stadium a possibility. 500 people from Laurel alone are employed by the refinery. Closing it would have been detrimental, not only to my small town, not only to the county, but also to Montana.

However, CHS was able to find a solution. It invested approximately 15 percent of its revenue into filtering its emissions. This led to a decrease in its overall pollution rate to below 10 percent and this rate continues to decrease as CHS develops more-efficient methods from which to produce its oil products and to filter its smoke.

Today when one drives on Highway 212, south of Laurel, you hardly notice the smoke. That is because the clouds that are seen exiting the plant are the product of steam from the production and the smell only occurs when some sulfur manages to escape. However, the plant continues to clean up its act while contributing to the economy.

Eventually all companies face an obstacle from which they are forced to adapt in order to overcome it. An extreme example would be Coca-Cola. A key ingredient in its soda was actual cocaine. Realizing the obviously harmful effects of the drug, Coca-Cola altered its recipe and removed it in 1903.

CHS similarly realized that its airborne pollutants had the potential to harm not only its surrounding ecosystem but people living there. So it altered its process and introduced filtering so as to adapt and overcome this obstacle. As CHS demonstrated, it is not difficult for companies to this in order to be innovative in an ever changing world.

I hope that surrounding plants across the state will take similar actions and follow in the steps of the Laurel Refinery so that they join hands with the Montana community and can contribute to the betterment of our environment.

Myles Stricker

Laurel