BP’s Texas City refinery, which already has been fined for safety violations that led to a deadly March 2005 explosion, is now investigating whether it has been accurately reporting pollution to the federal government. The query stems from the latest emissions data from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. In 2004, BP reported releasing three times more toxic pollution than it released in 2003, primarily formaldehyde and ammonia, at its Texas City plant, a number that makes the facility far and away the most polluting refinery in the U.S.
If you head south from Seabrook and follow Texas 146 along Galveston Bay, a scant 15 miles will find you in Texas City, one of the most heavily industrialized towns in Texas. Between BP and Union Carbide and a few other large plants and refineries, there’s little doubt about what fuels Texas CIty’s tax base. Residents of Texas City enjoy many benefits provided by the taxes paid by the large multinational corporations operating within their midst. The trade-off is that they must live with the modern equivalent of the sword of Damocles suspended above their collective head. Seldom has the reality been illustrated more than the accident in March, 2005 at the BP plant that left 15 workers dead and scores more injured.
BP is the most obvious and glaring example of the risks involved of live with large refineries and chemical plants, but there is more to it than the risks to workers and neighbors of these plants. Perhaps an even greater threat to public safety and health is the pollution produced by these plants, and again the Texas CIty BP plant is the worst offender, the country’s worst polluter, producing more that THREE TIMES the pollution of the #2 offender on list of top-10 polluters (see the graphic after the jump).
Yes, it’s all about the Benjamins, but while the residents of Texas CIty may enjoy the benefits of low taxes due to the presence of so many large plants and refineries, those of up the road are exposed to the health and safety risks without receiving any of the benefits that accrue to the residents of Texas City. No, we’re not at nearly the same risk as the residents of Texas City, but if the wind is blowing in the right direction, as it often is, the pollution travels right over the top of us in Seabrook. Nice, eh?
A threefold increase in toxic emissions from one year to the next? Of course, you can’t see it, or feel it, but if anything that makes the threat even more insidious. I can’t help but wonder what it will take before local governments and the state legislature recognize the threat posed not only to the citizens of Texas City, but also to Galveston County and southeast Harris County. Will another fatal plant accident have to occur? Will neighbors have to die in large numbers? BP has shown itself willing to play fast and loose with the rules and, most egregiously, with the lives of it’s workers in order to make a few more bucks for it’s shareholders. At what point will we demand that BP, and other plants and refineries, play by the rules that are currently in place?
Yes, I recognize the important economic role played by BP, Union Carbide, and other large plants and refineries in this area. Frankly, without these plants Galveston County would be an economic basket case. There simply aren’t many economic opportunities available in Galveston County outside of these huge chemical and petroleum behemoths. Local residents and governments, well aware of this reality, have in effect made a deal with the devil. In doing so, however, they subject not only themselves to the risks inherent in living next to and with the petrochemical industry, but also those of us just up the road and downwind. We have also been forced to live with the devil next door, though we realize few of the direct financial benefits.
Perhaps when a few hundred of us die, then government will take the threat seriously. I just hope I’m fortunate enough to be out of town when this happens.
