Houston’s Toxic Refinery Emissions
One of the most urgent challenges for the Houston area is the life-threatening toxic emissions from refineries and chemical plants.
Harris County is one of the top ten worst, counties for toxic emissions in the United States, according to the EPA’s Toxic Release Inventory Report. Furthermore, several studies show this report drastically underestimates emissions.
Even when excessive emissions are reported, corrective action is rarely taken. And communities that bear the health effects of the pollution receive little or no compensation.
Concerned about the health effects of toxic emissions, citizen groups like Houston-Galveston Citizen’s Air Monitoring Project (HGCAMP) and, in Port Arthur, the Community In-power Development Association, Inc. (CIDA) are monitoring the air in their neighborhoods and reporting excessive and illegal toxic emissions to the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality or TCEQ. Even when a refinery or chemical plant is found in violation of the Clean Air Act, the penalty is not enough to cause the facility to reduce emissions.
Collaboration among all levels of government, as well as N-G-Os, citizens, health care centers and industry is required now to protect public health, and to care for those who already have health problems from exposure to environmental toxins.