Genieve Long, a resident of Mayflower, Arkansas, told reporters and others today that a spill of tar sands oil near her home last year made her and her four children physically ill.
In South Portland today, a cautionary tale about crude oil extracted for tar sands. It came from Genieve Long, a resident of Mayflower, Arkansas. There was a spill of tar sands crude near her home last year. Long told reporters and others today that the spill made her and her four children physically ill.
Long’s experience worries two Casco Bay lobstermen, who spoke at Friday’s news conference. One of them Greg Griffen, the captain of a lobster boat, repeatedly choked up with worry.
“I promise you my men will bring you livelihood for centuries to come. Exxon-Mobil is on the way out. Sooner or later, they’re already gone,” Griffen said. “Try to remember that if you have children, like I do, and you love them, like I do.”
Many South Portlanders, and others, worry that oil interests will seek to reverse the flow of the Portland-to-Montreal pipeline so Canadian tar sands crude can be loaded onto tankers for export.
Portland Pipe Line Corporation, which owns the line, says it has no “proposed, pending, or imminent” plans to do that. Still, the city of South Portland has imposed a moratorium on any construction related to that possibility, and has a committee working to draft rules that would prevent the export of tar-sands crude through South Portland.
This story was reported and written by Irwin Gratz.
