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The facility is Michigan's only oil refinery, and the company was seeking pollution control permits from the state's Department of Environmental Quality, the Detroit Free Press reported. When Marathon got word that permits had been approved Friday, work crews that had been standing by began driving piles for the massive expansion in southwest Detroit.

Marathon said the company will employ 800 construction workers and add 135 permanent jobs to the existing 480 workers at the refinery. The project was opposed by environmentalists and some local community leaders who said there are already too many polluting industries the "toxic doughnut" that rings Detroit.

"That's really disappointing", Donele Wilkins, director of Detroiters Working for Environmental Justice, told the Free Press, adding that the island of heavily polluted neighborhoods in the area continue to bear the brunt of factories that provide jobs and products for the rest of the region.

Others, however, praised Marathon for making concessions on the project, such as lowering emission levels and granting hiring priorities to the neighborhood.

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