Stephens County OKs Management Agreement for Refinery Site

•Manage and promote development at the site.

•Recruit, market and attract new businesses.

•Provide economic development planning, support services and stakeholder engagement efforts.

DAEDF will work with county officials on applying for grants and other sources of funding to cover expenses associated with development, and it will bear all costs associated with the performance of its duties, according to the agreement.

The agreement does not require the county to supply any funding for the property, said Commission Chairman Todd Churchman.

“It doesn’t say we can’t, but it doesn’t say we need to or have to,” he said.

The foundation will supply the county with written progress reports once a quarter, as well as an annual written report.

Brownfield redevelopment

The refinery employed as many as 400 people between the 1920s and 1983, according to the agreement. Tosco Corp. closed the facility in 1983, and refining operations never resumed at that site.

From 1995 through 2001, the Environmental Protection Agency and the Oklahoma Department of Environmental Quality conducted extensive site inspections and remedial investigative operations for the property, known as SCRP. according to the agreement. As a result, the agencies imposed extensive remediation efforts before the site could be used for industrial purposes again.

State and federal courts held that ConocoPhillips Corp., which acquired Tosco in 2001, was primarily responsible for cleaning up the refinery site, according to the agreement. ConocoPhillips (CoPCo) was entitled to acquire title to the property to satisfy court judgments rendered in the company’s favor and against other responsible parties.

CoPCo approved an agreement in 2005 with the Department of Environmental Quality and the county, which provided that the county would hold title to the property while clean-up efforts were underway and after they were completed. The goal was to make the property usable for industrial purposes again.

CoPCo performed the required remediation efforts from 2004 through 2025, according to the agreement. As a result, the state Department of Environmental Qualifications certified that the site could be used as a brownfield redevelopment property — abandoned, underused or contaminated land that has been transformed into a viable and productive site.