Detroit struggles with tar sands refinery – in pictures

McKenzie Duke looks out the window onto the three-story piles of petroleum coke accumulating across the street from the building she lives in. Duke, an attorney and counselor in Detroit, moved into The Hudson lofts building on Fort street in August 2012. The piles started appearing three months after she moved in. Photograph: James Fassinger/For the Guardian

Piles of pet-coke are stored close to the city center along the Detroit River just east of the Ambassador Bridge, the busiest international crossing in North America. The material is produced at the Marathon Petroleum refinery in south-west Detroit and has been purchased by Koch Carbon, a company run by the brothers David and Charles Koch Photograph: James Fassinger/For the Guardian

Fishermen on the Detroit River troll by Koch Carbon’s mountains of pet-coke early on a recent Sunday morning. When asked, many who fish the river say they are not concerned about potential hazards like runoff or dust from the piles on themselves, the fish in the river or the Great Lakes watershed. The city’s much-photographed abandoned train station, Michigan Central Station, sits only a few blocks away, while storm drains that run under the site can be seen running into the river Photograph: James Fassinger/For the Guardian

Petroleum coke resembles large grains of sand and is slightly sticky to the touch. Its high heat and low ash content make it attractive for burning in coal-fired power plants, but many plants in the US or Canada will not burn it because it is so polluting Photograph: James Fassinger/For the Guardian

News reports have stated that pet-coke from the Marathon refinery is being sold mostly for use in overseas markets like China and India where it will be burned as fuel. However, DTE Energy confirmed that the power company used pet-coke from the Detroit refinery in tests at its Monroe coal plant downriver in February and March this year Photograph: James Fassinger/For the Guardian

The pet-coke stored along the river is produced here at the Marathon Petroleum refinery in south-west Detroit. Marathon put $2.2bn into refitting and expanding the refinery to handle the large flow of tar sands crude coming from Alberta. This expansion has encroached even further on the already crumbling neighborhood of Oakwood Heights bordering it. Marathon has offered buyouts to some homeowners to relocate in order to create a buffer zone around the refinery, while holding out on others Photograph: James Fassinger/For the Guardian

Sherry Griswold has lived here for over 20 years. The expansion of the refinery has brought the section that produces the pet-coke right up to the border of her lot. She says it has created a nightmare of explosions and chemical releases that she claims have severely affected her health Photograph: James Fassinger/For the Guardian

Sherry keeps careful track of the incidents she witnesses coming from the refinery next door and each call she makes to report it. This is her list from May detailing dates, times and incident numbers given to her by Marathon Photograph: James Fassinger/For the Guardian

The neighborhood next to the refinery has a surreal air about it. Buildings purchased by Marathon are boarded up and locked with TV satellite dishes and Christmas lights still attached. These sit next to occupied homes with families living in them and across the street from houses burned-out and strewn with litter Photograph: James Fassinger/For the Guardian

Just down the street from Sherry Griswold, Robert Parmenter sits on his front porch. He has lived in the neighborhood for 20 years and rents the house. 'I’m ready to go,' he says. 'As soon as [the landlord] sells the house, I’d be out the same day.' Marathon did not offer him a buyout to leave Photograph: James Fassinger/For the Guardian

Sam Rosado has lived in south-west Detroit for 16 years. Fishing on the shore across from the piles of pet-coke and coal on Zug Island, not far from the Marathon refinery and home to United States Steel, he says he won’t eat the fish he catches Photograph: James Fassinger/For the Guardian

Back upriver, in a fishing area next to the controversial stockpiles of pet coke owned by Koch Carbon, Lawrence Jackson pulls a silver bass out of the river. He doesn’t worry too much about contamination Photograph: James Fassinger/For the Guardian

The General Motors Renaissance Center, world headquarters of the Detroit auto giant, looms in the background of the stockpiles of pet coke along the river. According Detroit Bulk Storage, the company in charge of storing and managing the material at this site, six acres of asphalt has been put down under the piles to direct any runoff water away from the Detroit River and towards the center of the pad in compliance with government guidelines. The asphalt also provides an impermeable barrier between the pet coke and the ground soil Photograph: James Fassinger/For the Guardian

Jacques Driscoll opened the Green Dot Stables restaurant with his wife, Christine, just over a year ago. They are part of a growing number of young entrepreneurs who have set up business in Detroit to take advantage of opportunity as the city struggles to recover from economic crisis, but also to contribute its comeback and be a part of the community. Talking about the uncovered pet-coke sitting just a block away he says: 'It’s pretty ballsy to put something on the river knowing that it’s bad, if it truly is bad, and try to get away with it' Photograph: James Fassinger/For the Guardian

A Canadian view of the stockpiles along the river shared with Detroit. Here in Windsor, Canadians not only look out onto the pet-coke piles each day but complain of the large amounts of dust and particulate matter in the air that blows over the river to their city. Many are sounding alarm bells about the potential health and environmental issues of storing the piles out in the open Photograph: James Fassinger/For the Guardian

People enjoy a Sunday morning fishing on the Windsor shore. Across the river, not far from the Ambassador Bridge and the controversial piles of pet-coke, Detroit Bulk Storage manages another site at the Nicholson Docks where the material is also being stored and loaded onto freighters Photograph: James Fassinger/For the Guardian

Back in Detroit, the debate heats up over the pet-coke piles and local residents and businesses on both sides of the river are waiting for answers. Gary Peters, a Michigan Democrat who represents the area, has introduced a bill in the House of Representatives calling for an investigation into the health and environmental effects of the piles Photograph: James Fassinger/For the Guardian