By Reggie James, Lone Star Chapter Director
Sierra Club’s Lone Star Chapter and Texas Campaign for the Environment (TCE) were granted party status on September 6, 2018, to contest the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality’s (TCEQ) decision to allow an ExxonMobil/SABIC subsidiary to build and operate the world’s largest ethane cracker -- a massive petrochemical facility which would produce plastic pellets and other products -- in Gregory, Texas.
If Exxon gets its way, this Gulf Coast Growth Ventures (GCGV) training building would sit in front of the largest ethane cracking facility in the world in Gregory, Texas
Photo credit: Bryan Parras
For background on the proposed facility, click here.
Dewey McGee was the first witness in the proceeding held by the State Office of Administrative Hearings (SOAH) at the Corpus Christi county courthouse on behalf of the Texas Commission on the Environment (TCEQ). Mr. McGee and his wife live in one house and his daughter and grandchildren live in another house on Mr. McGee’s property located approximately half of a mile from the proposed facility. He testified that he is concerned about exposure to the large amounts of air contaminants that would be emitted from the facility, these include: carbon monoxide, greenhouse gases, nitrogen oxides, organic compounds, lung damaging particulate matter, solvents, ammonia, ethylene oxide, hydrogen sulfide, sulfur dioxide, sulfuric acid mist, and other contaminants. He’s especially concerned about the health of his grandchildren who will also be attending school in the area.
Sierra Club and TCE had to demonstrate they had members who would be negatively affected by the proposed Exxon plant in order to participate as parties to contest the plant permit.
Several members of Sierra Club and TCE who live near the proposed facility attended the hearing, but the ALJ needed to hear from only Mr. McGee and Scott Haggarty, who also lives near the plant and has small children who will attend the same school, to be convinced our members would be affected.
The contested case officially commenced at the close of the preliminary hearing and will continue until May 3 when the ALJ issues his decision. The ALJ granted a Sierra Club and TCE request for a reasonable extension to the hearing schedule so the attorneys and expert witnesses have time to review and evaluating substantial amounts of critical information about emissions and possible health effects of the plant--information that TCEQ and Exxon have withheld from the public.
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