Years of civil rights complaints have gone unexamined by the EPA, and this week Earthjustice filed a lawsuit on behalf of several groups, including the Sierra Club's Lone Star Chapter, to compel the EPA to fulfill its duties to enforce Title VI of the Civil Rights Act. The complaints, according to the Earthjustice press release, "involve discrimination by the states in granting permits that subject already overburdened low-income communities of color to more big-polluting facilities." What's the story in Texas?
Essentially, the Texas Commission for Environmental Quality (TCEQ, then called TNRCC) in 2000, failed to consider the environmental burden that ExxonMobil's refinery expansion near Beaumont, Texas, would have on residents who already suffered from elevated levels of asthma and breast cancer due to pollutants in the area. The Sierra Club and other groups filed a complaint with the EPA under Title VI of the Civil Rights Act.
That complaint was filed 15 years ago.
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Earthjustice has the full story here.
Neil Carman, our Clean Air Program Director, had this to say on the announcement and the original complaint: "The African American community is next to the ExxonMobil oil refinery and has been seeking clean air for years. One way the state can do this is to take steps to lower toxic releases of hydrogen sulfide like those released by the refinery, and not permit ExxonMobil to release more."
More details (from the Waiting for Justice Complaint Sheet):
"In April 2000, the Lone Star Chapter and others submitted a complaint to the EPA against the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ) for issuing a permit amendment to expand ExxonMobil’s Beaumont Refinery.
The Sierra Club Complaint alleges that TCEQ allowed ExxonMobil to increase several categories of emissions, including hydrogen sulfide, without allowing the public to participate in a contested case hearing on the matter. The complaint also notes that 95% of the population living in the census block groups most impacted by the Beaumont Refinery was African American and over half of this maximum-impact population lived in poverty. Both of these values were more than twice the city, county, and state-wide averages, showing a disproportionate impact on African Americans and persons living in poverty.
According to Sierra Club, TCEQ’s actions reflect the state agency’s faulty method of administering its policies and procedures, which has created and perpetuated a system of discriminatory facility siting and expansion throughout the State of Texas.
EPA accepted the complaint for investigation in 2003. Since then, the Beaumont Refinery has expanded its refining operations and increased its emissions of hydrogen sulfide and other air pollutants. In 2005, EPA levied a $8.7 million penalty on ExxonMobil for Clean Air Act violations at the Beaumont Refinery and other refineries. In 2008, EPA again levied a $122,500 penalty on ExxonMobil for failure to monitor the sulfur content of gases burned in furnaces at the refinery. EPA also classified the refinery as in “Significant Violation” of the Clean Air Act, and it has been subject to $638,103 in penalties for Clean Air Act violations."
Take action! Tell the EPA to address civil rights violations!
Photo courtesy of Randy Edwards