Two days after Sunoco announced its 4th Quarter 2005 profits, a group of concerned residents delivered an open letter to CEO John Drosdick, demanding measures be taken to ensure their safety from hazards created by the company’s southwest Philadelphia refinery. Representatives from local community groups planned to hand-deliver the letter, urging Drosdick to activate a long-promised emergency siren system and to use his authority to end the dangerous use of the chemical hydrofluoric acid (HF) at the refinery.

“This letter to John Drosdick represents the frustration of community residents with Sunoco’s posturing itself as a ‘good neighbor’ while at the same time refusing to ensure the safety of those residents by finishing the sirens and switching to a safer alternative than HF,” said Sonnet Gabbard, Program Organizer for Clean Water Action. “We call on Mr. Drosdick to use his authority as Sunoco’s CEO to ensure residents’ health and safety.”

The letter points out that, while the sirens are not yet fully functional almost ten years after they were ordered as part of a lawsuit against Sunoco, the company recently issued glossy ads about the sirens that may mislead the public into believing that they are functional. The last siren has yet to be installed and none of the other nine are yet functional.

“The lack of emergency sirens only makes the threat of HF worse,” according to Joanne Rossi, of the Community/Labor Refinery Tracking Committee (C/LRTC), a residents’ group that monitors pollution and safety threats caused by the refinery. “Sunoco needs to stop paying lip service to our safety concerns, finish the sirens, and switch from HF to a safer alternative.”

Hydrofluoric acid, if released from the refinery, could put nearly 4 million area residents at risk of severe respiratory problems and even death. A modifier is currently available that would make the chemical easier to contain and clean up, but Sunoco has so far refused to consider a change.

Clean Water Action and the C/LRTC are joined in signing the letter by the Eastwick Project Area Committee, Passyunk Homes Civic Association, the Right To Know Committee, and Southwest Enlisted Against Toxics.