CITGO Takes Another Step in Protecting the Heritage Quarries Recreation Area

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Feb 22, 2017, 08:30 ET

LEMONT, Ill., Feb. 22, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- The CITGO Lemont Refinery recently awarded Lemont High School a grant for the purchase of a Remotely Operated Vehicle (ROV). The ROV will be utilized for research within the Heritage Quarries Recreation Area (HQRA) as a part of regular classroom instruction.

In partnership with The Conservation Foundation, the HQRA restoration project is designed to boost ecological conservation and restoration. In addition, an educational component has been incorporated and includes the teachers and students at Lemont High School.

Students calibrate the remote control with the ROV. Students on deck (left to right): Luke Pawlak, Sarah Hagen and Jack Lindsey; students in water (left to right): Damian Kowalczyk, Adam Popper and Chris Diviero.

Classroom instruction is already underway in the HQRA, including the mapping of the bottom of the quarries. The ROV has an HD camera, grabber arm, temperature sensor, depth sensor and a size laser. Students in the Advanced Research, Analysis and Application class are working on an assignment that uses the vehicle to gather data and samples from the Lemont Quarries. According to Lemont High School science teacher Erin Horan, the samples will be analyzed by the students, who will then make the data public by posting it on a YouTube channel.

"We will be using the ROV at both HQRA cleanup projects and during class time to inform the community on cause and effects issues inside the quarries," said Horan.

CITGO has been funding semiannual projects within the HQRA since the fall of 2014, when approximately 200 volunteers cleaned three acres of land and harvested native species' seeds for replanting the following spring. CITGO volunteers have returned to the HQRA for similar removal and planting events during both 2015 and 2016.

Located just half a mile east of downtown Lemont, the HQRA is situated among thousands of acres of forest preserves, including more than 65 miles of hiking and biking trails, as well as access to fishing and boating along the I & M Canal and the Consumers, Great Lakes and Icebox Quarries.

Other community environmental initiatives sponsored by the CITGO Lemont Refinery include the Mid Coast Cleanup at the 41st Beach in Chicago and a Semiannual Household Hazardous Waste Collection. In addition, the CITGO Lemont Refinery is the founding sponsor of Project Infinite Green, which is an after-school program in Lemont that encourages STEM exploration by taking students on a journey of U.S. energy sources – both traditional and renewable energy, environmental stewardship, climate change, public policy and business plan formation.

About the CITGO Lemont Refinery
For over 90 years, CITGO Lemont Refinery has employed more than 750 Chicago area residents on a full-time and contract basis in support of the local economy. In addition to producing high quality fuels for a large portion of the network of nearly 5,500 locally-owned CITGO stations across the country, Lemont Refinery employees also make a major positive impact on the community. Each year, more than 2,500 volunteer hours and thousands of dollars are given in support of community programs such as Muscular Dystrophy Association, United Way and a variety of environmental and preservation programs. Operations at the Lemont Refinery began in 1925 with a major expansion, doubling the facility, in 1933. Over the years, new units were added to meet the demand for a better quality of gas for automobiles, aviation fuel for WWII, and the production of asphalt. Petróleos de Venezuela, PDVSA, acquired 100% ownership of the refinery in 1997 and began operations as CITGO Lemont Refinery. For more information, visit www.citgorefining.com/Lemont.

About CITGO
CITGO, based in Houston, is a refiner, transporter and marketer of transportation fuels, lubricants, petrochemicals and other industrial products. The company is owned by CITGO Holding, Inc., an indirect wholly owned subsidiary of Petróleos de Venezuela, S.A., the national oil company of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela. For more information, visit www.CITGO.com.

SOURCE CITGO Petroleum Corporation