Photo by Bryan Parras: Refinery in Port Arithur, Texas a few days after Hurricane Laura hit.
Last week, Hurricane Laura made landfall at the Texas-Louisiana border, an area that is consistently battered with the dual dangers of natural disasters and chronic pollution from the petrochemical plants that litter the Gulf Coast. Almost exactly this time last year, the Golden Triangle in East Texas was hit hard by the surprisingly destructive Tropical Storm Imelda. Not long before that, Hurricane Harvey shook the greater Houston area and the Golden Triangle with monumental flooding (and consquently, a massive amount of pollution released from industry during and after the storm).
These nearly back-to-back natural disasters demonstrate how the climate crisis, chronic industrial pollution, and COVID-19 intersect and have the most severe and compounding impacts on communities of color. And these impacts aren’t incidental, they are the predictable consequences of a systemically racist society that ignores the health and wellbeing of Black, Indigenous, and people of color (BIPOC). Cities like Beaumont, Port Arthur, and Louisiana’s Lake Charles just across the border, are home to large Black populations, with many Black communities that live fence-line to petrochemical plants.
Sierra Club is supporting several frontline organizations in the Port Arthur, Texas and Lake Charles, Louisiana area as they help families recover. And you can help too. You can take action here and support local mutual aid groups in Louisiana and Southeast Texas that are working on disaster relief for those impacted by the storm.
Hurricanes again? What did we learn?
Unlike in the instances of Harvey and Imelda, Texas was fortunate that the twin hurricanes of Marcos and Laura for the most part spared our state, other than a sliver of Orange and Jefferson County which did sustain severe physical damages, but apparently no direct loss of lives. Hundreds of thousands of people were for a time without power, however, in the middle of one of the hottest Augusts on record.
Our neighbors in western Louisiana were not as fortunate. If you had any doubt, 2020 is again proving that yes climate change is real, as the U.S. has had more hurricanes thus far than ever before in recorded history, even as fires burn bright in Colorado and California, and August saw more 100 degree days in Texas than ever before.
Most of these impacted communities already face the harsh reality of “normal” daily pollution from the fossil fuel industry. But every time a hurricane hits, pollution events in Gulf Coast communities become much worse.
Three years ago, Hurricane Harvey blew through Texas. Harvey was a uniquely devastating storm because it “hovered” over Houston and Golden Triangle areas for days, dumping torrents of rain, and what ensued was an unmitigated environmental disaster. As we remember, not only did we have superfund sites leak, public water utilities fail, and chemical plants spew toxic chemicals into the atmosphere, we had an environmental agency that was not prepared to assure safety from these environmental harms. Predictably, while the whole region suffered, the brunt of environmental pollution was born by the Black and Brown communities living near superfund sites, refineries, oil terminals and chemical plants.
After Hurricane Harvey swept through Houston, it took weeks for some air monitors to be brought back online. In the meantime, some chemical leaks were found to be much larger than originally described.
For instance, a Valero Energy Partners LP refinery in Houston initially reported an estimated 6.7 pounds of benzene had been released after Harvey damaged a crude storage tank. But independent monitors near the site detected benzene levels six times higher than what Valero initially reported. And the company ultimately revised its first estimate, telling regulators the actual release was nearly 300 times larger than initially calculated, resulting in discharging some 1,881 pounds of the carcinogen.
Interestingly (even ironically), last week as the Hurricane was leaving the coast, the State Administrative Office of Hearings Examine, held a preliminary “virtual” meeting over a Valero air quality permit amendment. The Judge ordered a second preliminary hearing to give those who may have been evacuating more time to prepare requests to contest the permit for hydrogen cyanide emissions.
Was Texas Better Prepared For This Hurricane?
Not entirely. Governor Greg Abbott did once again declare a disaster and then immediately relaxed enforcement on environmental rules for TCEQ and industry for the duration of the hurricane event.
We argued three years ago that it’s irresponsible and dangerous to disregard environmental enforcement during a hurricane. It gives too much flexibility to industry to skirt the laws which leads to the release of an enormous amount of pollution- however this protocol is much more limited than three years ago.
TCEQ was slightly more prepared this year in part because of actions taken by residents, community advocates, and the legislature to push for better monitoring equipment, and better coordination between local and state regulators. Even before the hurricane hit, TCEQ provided industry the rules on reporting emission events, spills and repairs, and had issued a press statement outlining how it was handling the potential environmental consequences of the storm.
However, TCEQ, as is their custom, did turn off stationary air quality monitors in Beaumont, Port Arthur, and East Houston as the storm came through. The monitors are not designed to withstand hurricane-force winds and until this issue can be fixed, TCEQ will continue to avoid monitoring for toxic fumes in the immediate arrival and aftermath of hurricanes.
The vast majority of the monitors in Houston were only off for about a day, since Houston was spared the worst of the storm’s brunt. In Beaumont and Port Arthur, however, many of the stationary monitors were still down five days after the hurricane passed, as TCEQ crews inspected them to make sure they were operational. You can see a complete list of the stations and their status here.
How Bad Was the Pollution?
It’s hard to say exactly, but it wasn’t good.
Because many of the refineries and petrochemical plants in the area in anticipation of the hurricane did shut down and then start back up, there was excess emissions throughout East Houston and the Beaumont-Port Arthur, and communities were subjected to higher levels of pollution.
Without active air monitoring, local communities and regulators may not detect the extra emissions caused by shutdown and startup, as well as the silent and sometimes odorless chemical leaks that may have been unleashed by Laura, one of the most powerful storms ever to hit Texas and Louisiana.
In fact, a Motiva Enterprises LLC refinery in Port Arthur reported that as it prepared for the storm, a process line leaked an estimated 223 pounds of benzene, volatile organic compounds and other substances.
Meanwhile, in Westlake, Louisiana, residents were asked to shelter indoors to avoid exposure to a chemical plant fire that could release its own toxic plume. The fire started after chlorine leaked from a BioLab chemical manufacturing facility in Westlake, authorities said. A small crew at the facility made several unsuccessful attempts to extinguish flames during the storm. As the chemical burned, it began to release chlorine gas into the air.
In addition to the extra air emissions, more than 30 spills -- including those involving Motiva and the BioLab -- were reported into coastal waters in Texas and Louisiana to the Coast Guard through their National Response Center in the three days around the hurricane hitting. Many of those spills are still being investigated, but as happened with Harvey, we do see reports in Louisiana that involve both storage tanks failing, and pipelines bursting. Incident reports can be found here.
But there is hope. We have more tools.
Because of advocacy by many of our members and partners, the Legislature did give TCEQ some additional monies, around $1 million, to provide for mobile toxic monitoring equipment. And it seems to be paying off. According to the TCEQ, a day after the hurricane, they were utilizing handheld toxic monitoring devices in the Pasadena/East Houston area to see if any of the start-up and shut-downs of chemical and oil refineries were impacting local pollution levels, as we saw after Hurricane Harvey.
More importantly, TCEQ sent all three of its mobile monitoring vans, partially upgraded due to the extra funds, to the Beaumont/Port Arthur area on Thursday, and they began addressing pollution levels through these mobile vans on Friday. With major companies like Valero and Motiva beginning start-up operations, it is vitally important that TCEQ is checking pollution levels and assuring that companies are not doctoring their books as they report start-up pollution levels. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency also sent monitoring equipment to the area, sending its TAGA (Trace Atmospheric Gas Analyzer) mobile monitor to the area, at least giving residents more assurances about toxic releases compared to the delays that occured after Harvey.
As the storm menaced the coast, companies in southeast Texas told regulators that even without emergency spills they expected to release an extra 4.35 million pounds of pollutants including hydrogen sulfide, the carcinogens benzene and 1,3-Butadiene, and nitrogen oxides, which lead to ozone formation, according to reports filed with the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality. Particularly heavy emissions were anticipated by the Beaumont Gas to Gasoline Plant and a refinery in Galveston, in addition to the extra emissions from Valero and Motiva plants.
If Hurricane Harvey was our guide, we may find out weeks from now that chemical leaks and reported emission events will be larger than originally described.
In the meantime, we can take some pride in knowing that the money we advocated for is being used in Beaumont and Port Arthur today to better measure that pollution and hopefully keep industry more honest. But without better enforcement and permitting decisions, knowing there is more poison in the air will not prevent the health impacts that are ravaging our communities -- particularly Black and Brown communities -- and climate impacts that are harming our planet.