So...I guess this is another reason to raise the gas price again!?

We have been assured by Holly that theor emissions were below EPA standards, and then last month the EPA and the Justice department mandate a $17M repair to lowere excessive emissions. Who was lying?
Within the last 4 months there have been two fires at the refinery which officials spin off as no big deal. Now this explosion and fire in "a pipe already scheduled for replacement." Obviously the leak was a concern some time ago. Why did they wait?? Or, was that just a line to deflect criticism for a safety program which is deficient and a hazard to surrounding neighbors?
There is no community recognized alarm or evacuation plan in place at this refinery, despite constant requests to the city manager and council for a published and clear emergency response. When contacted by local citizens, the DN has simply used the Holly PR response as their own. Only the Ogden Standard has been willing to look harder the Holly deflections of responsibility. Many of the mandated safety protections agreed to by Holly remain unaddressed. Is someone going to have to be killed before we get a change in policy????

Dear Deseret News,
I and others are waiting to see if you will dig into this fiasco to the underlying errors and refusal to respond that are becoming a problem. On two consecutive nights prior to this explosion, Holly lost generator power and had to blow off substantial excess flamables. The last time I called them to question the blow off, the person in the control room asked me if I would prefer an explosion to the filthy emissions and heat of the blow off. I guess I got my answer.
In a community public response meeting last year with Holly officials, we were assured that the plant was better run, more efficient and cleaner than any time in the past.
We have lived next to holly for 13 years and these last six months wherein there have been blowoffs, power failures and fires are the only ones I can remember in that whole time. Phillips seemed to have a handle on things and was more neighborhood responsive than we have ever seen Holly be.
Our neighbors have moved, others are planning to and our property values have been negatively impacted. Will you pay attention Deseret News???

I can't tell if Holly management suffers from good old fashioned stupidity, or are looking for yet another excuse to push gas prices over $4 before summer.

Isn't it interesting that the oil and gas companies are recording record profits? Ma Bell was broken up because of monopolistic behavior.

Where are the controls on this industry?

Ed - Good comments.

I live about a mile north of the refinery; heard the siren and saw the fireball out of my bedroom window.
It was quite surreal.

I had just been talking with my neighbor Tuesday evening about the refinery, because the burn off pipes were emitting huge ghastly amounts of thick black smoke that evening. My neighbor mentioned that there was an automatic phone alert system in place to notify residents to evacuate, but that we weren't within the evacuation/notification radius.

I've lived in West Bountiful for two years and, for the most part, have not been bothered by the refinery. However, if there are safety mandates that have not been implemented, they obviously should be! If a major disaster were to occur at the refinery, we would be toast anyway...um, can you say 'plummeting home values'?

Now that a fire of this magnitude has occurred, I think that residents and city councils will put much more pressure on Holly to comply with safety and environmental mandates.