Why was oil terminal built at the base of an active volcano?

[babylonsister]

Under the volcano

Redoubt eruptions prompt question: Why was this built here?

By RICHARD MAUER
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Published: April 25th, 2009 09:13 PM
Last Modified: April 25th, 2009 11:05 PM


When Mount Redoubt began erupting last month, the nearby Drift River oil terminal suddenly emerged from the obscurity of a low-key industrial facility to the potential source of an environmental disaster on the scale of the Exxon Valdez.

And with its place in the spotlight came an obvious question: How could such a hazardous facility have been built there, just 22 miles from Redoubt's cone?

"That is the most consistent question I hear on the street," said Bob Shavelson, executive director of the environmental watchdog group Cook Inletkeeper. "The everyday, walking-around person scratches their head when they hear there's an oil terminal at the base of an active volcano."

The precise details of why it's there are lost in the haze of history. The current owners, Chevron-managed Cook Inlet Pipe Line Co., say they inherited the facility in 2005 when Chevron bought out Unocal, the prior operator, and don't know its full history. State records show that officials from Mobil, one of Cook Inlet Pipe Line's original owners, initiated the purchase and lease of two state land parcels for the terminal in early 1966.

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http://www.adn.com/money/industries/oil/story/773178.html