The Marathon Refinery in St. Paul Park has announced that the refinery will transition from a full-time contractor force for on-site emergencies, such as fire, to trained and qualified refinery employees who will constitute a paid, on-call emergency response team. St. Paul Park’s Police Chief Jessica Danberg said she has serious worries about Marathon’s plans to change their firefighting approach. She said the fire chief shares the same concerns. Refinery management assures the public that with the new arrangement, there will be more specialist responders available within the fenceline than before, and that Marathon Petroleum will continue to honor all mutual aid agreements with state and county agencies, and offer training sessions within the refinery to community first responders. According to a statement released by Marathon, the St. Paul Park refinery is investing more than $3 million in emergency response equipment in 2020, as they continue to implement world-class technologies to ensure the safety of the community. This is in addition to investments of nearly $50 million since 2013 in the refinery’s safety and emergency response infrastructure.
