This shut-down Texaco refinery emits insoluable petroleum globs into the North Platte River, immediately adjacent to the plant. The Sierra Club and others have claimed that arsenic, benzene and ammonia (just to name a few of the dangerous substances cited) were buried in unlined pits next to the refinery, and that millions of pounds of contaminants were released into the river and groundwater every year while the plant was in operation. The plant began processing petroleum products from locally extracted crude in the 1920's and closed in 1982.