CITGO Volunteers in Corpus Christi Mark 10 Years of Cleanup Efforts at Hans & Pat Suter Wildlife Refuge

CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas, March 15, 2016 /3BL Media/ – Marking their 10th year of service to Hans and Pat Suter Wildlife Refuge, Team CITGO volunteers from the CITGO Petroleum Corporation Corpus Christi Refinery recently took part in a cleanup day at the refuge to help beautify the park and protect critical habitats. 

“Corpus Christi students and residents enjoy coming to the park to relax and learn more about local wildlife,” said Stacie Talbert Anaya, interim director of the Corpus Christi Parks & Recreation Department. “Thanks to CITGO and its decade of service to Suter Refuge, we can continuously provide our community with a beautiful place to visit and observe plants and animals in their natural habitats.”

In addition to serving as a community gathering space, Suter Refuge is a well-regarded birding site. Visitors have access to a one-mile nature trail as well as an 800-foot boardwalk with views of Oso Bay, grassy marshes, woodlands and mudflats. For over a decade, CITGO has been an avid partner of Suter Refuge, helping with everything from weed removal to branch trimming to path clearing, ensuring the park is clean, free of debris and safe for visitors and animals alike. 

“Suter Refuge is a vital community resource. Team CITGO volunteers dedicated 272 hours to the refuge last year, providing crucial upkeep to a space that many Corpus Christi residents use,” said CITGO Corpus Christi Refinery Vice President and General Manager Art Klein. “Our work with Suter Refuge reflects our ongoing commitment to environmental initiatives on both the national and local levels.”

For more than 80 years, the CITGO Corpus Christi Refinery has been a dedicated supporter of local environmental initiatives in Corpus Christi and throughout the broader Gulf Coast community. In addition to its work with Suter Refuge, the refinery and its Team CITGO volunteers have partnered with the Coastal Bend Bays & Estuaries Program to revitalize areas within the Nueces Delta Preserve, planted trees and removed invasive vegetation at Smith Oaks Sanctuary in High Island and led cleanup efforts at Camp Aranzazu. Since 2014, when CITGO launched its Caring for Our Coast environmental restoration campaign, CITGO has committed resources for more than 40 projects involving more than 3,600 volunteers, including many CITGO employees, their families and friends. Combined, volunteers have planted more than 200,000 plugs of dune grass, trees and bushes and collected 2,800 pounds of trash in support of restoring and protecting more than 400 acres of coastal habitats in the Gulf.

About CITGO Corpus Christi Refinery
The CITGO Corpus Christi Refinery, which celebrated 80 years of operations in 2015, provides more than 1,000 jobs locally, while generating more than $345 million per year in support of the local economy through salaries, services and taxes. In addition to producing high-quality fuels for its network of nearly 5,500 independently owned and operated CITGO branded stations across the country, Corpus Christi refinery employees make a major positive impact on the community. In 2015 alone, CITGO employees in Corpus Christi volunteered more than 2,900 hours of their personal time to local and national charities. Since 2013, the CITGO Corpus Christi Refinery and its employees have provided more than 10,000 volunteer hours and approximately $3.3 million in support of community organizations such as United Way, Charlie's Place, Muscular Dystrophy Association, The Miracle League, Catholic Charities, the Special Olympics and a variety of environmental and preservation initiatives, such as the revitalization of the Gateway to Corpus Christi, Hans and Pat Suter Park and Adopt-A-Beach Clean Up. The 80th anniversary of the Corpus Christi Refinery last year was preceded by the 70th anniversary of the CITGO Lake Charles Refinery in 2014 and is being followed by the 90th anniversary of the CITGO Lemont Refinery in 2016, with CITGO facilities marking three significant milestones in three consecutive years. For more information on the CITGO Corpus Christi Refinery, visit www.citgorefining.com/corpus-christi.

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 http://www.citgo.com/.