Community In-power and Development Association (CIDA)

(Letter to Motiva Refinery)

April 15, 2003

Tom Purvis
Bill Wimberley
Motiva Refinery
Port Arthur, Texas

Dear Mr. Purvis and Mr. Wimberley,

The Community In-power and Development Association (CIDA) requests that you immediately supply us with the all air monitoring data your staff collected yesterday during your upset.

We see that Mr. Wimberley was quoted in the media as saying that you were monitoring and "picked up nothing of concern". We are eager to see what you did pick up for ourselves. We observed thick smoke on and near the ground in the El Vista neighborhood and a foul odor was present. Please also supply us with the information about the kind of monitoring equipment you used, the chemicals you tested for and the detection limits of your equipment.

According to Shell's own principles, your facility must be transparent with your neighbors in your operations and communications. We ask you to comply with Shell¹s principles by immediately providing the information that we have requested. The head of Shell, Sir Philip Watts, has made the following statements:

"Transparency is absolutely key. Recent corporate scandals have underlined just how fundamental it is. It would be tragic if these events undermined confidence in business in general, but we clearly need to rebuild trust."

"...engage with communities, working with local and international NGOs to help them to pursue their own development rather than presuming we know best. We need to make sure that we will be able to uphold our business principles, and that local communities benefit from our participation."

The CIDA asks you to take this opportunity to be fully transparent and rebuild trust with your neighbors.

Sincerely,

Hilton Kelley
Founder ­ CIDA
Port Arthur, Texas
409-498-1088

Back to report on Motiva upset 4/15/03