Community despair expressed at EPA hearing
by Vicki Wolf, November 2007

Like a prayer in the night for help to change tragedy in the making, a candlelight vigil was held November 26, the night before the daylong EPA hearing on standards for hazardous air pollutants from petroleum refineries. Families from the Manchester neighborhood, environmentalists and a state representative gathered with their candles lit under the trees of the Hartman Community Center with the Valero refinery as a backdrop. They walked in silence, lighting the way with their candles, and then stopped right across from the refinery to hear speakers talk about the hearing to come in the morning.

The EPA hearing on national environmental standards for hazardous air pollutants (NESHAP) from petroleum refineries, held in the Manchester Neighborhood surrounded by refineries, is the only hearing the EPA will hold on this national issue. The EPA is considering whether to tighten pollution controls at 153 refineries across the country. Five of them are located in Harris County.

The next morning, November 27, the EPA courteously hosted the hearing, encouraging everyone who walked into the community center to speak. A panel of four EPA representatives listened as residents, environmentalists, physicians, state representatives and the mayor of Houston gave testimony.

Rosalia Guerrero, outreach coordinator for Mothers for Clean Air, told the panel that she grew up on the fence line of a refinery in Texas City. She said she survived two major explosions and countless spills while growing up there. “I live near ‘petro metro,’” she said. “The Texas Gulf Coast is my home. Everything I love and know is here.” Many things have changed, she noted. “The only thing that hasn’t changed is the plants and the harm they cause. I remembered that when I explained to my mother what lymphoma is. That was the day my sister was diagnosed with cancer, Guerrero said and paused as she began to sob. “I remember my mother’s cry,” Guerrero continued. “There are so many mothers crying in this neighborhood unable to come here today.”

State Representative Dora Olivio told the EPA their role is important because the state legislature is unwilling to pass bills to protect public health. In the last legislative session, a number of bills to better monitor and control toxic emissions were presented but none made it to the floor for a hearing. “You’re so darn critical to the process,” Olivo told the EPA panel. “I’m concerned about what you are proposing -- no requirements for improvement. You must protect the people, not somebody’s pocketbook,” she said.

“I’m astonished that there is a different standard for those living near refineries,” Representative Ana Hernandez told the panel. The National Emissions Standards for Hazardous Air Pollutants (NESHAP) allows cancer rates 100 times greater for those living near refineries than the rate for the general population -- 100 in a million rather the one in a million. “These are low-income, minority communities. I grew up in this community and want my children to grow up here,” she continued.

Hernandez echoed the frustration with the state legislature regarding the inability to get a hearing on bills to protect public health from toxic emissions. “At the state level, we are trying to do all we can, but nothing has passed. Political will is not there. There has not been a hearing on toxic emissions bills presented to the legislature.” Of about 50 speakers who gave testimony during the 10-hour hearing, several residents described the deterioration of their own health.

Jose Chavez spoke in Spanish with the assistance of a translator. “I’ve lived in this area 25 years and have four children born and raised here. I always thought that something was being done about contamination here,” he said. “But I think it has not been sufficient because I have been affected, and this past June I was diagnosed with throat cancer,” Chavez told the panel.

Jeff Holmstead, a lawyer paid by the American Petroleum Institute to testify at the hearings, compared the risk of getting cancer from toxic refinery emissions to getting struck by lightning. “Activists say any risk higher than one in a million is unacceptable. This is not true and would be pretty silly. We know how many people are struck by lightning is 27 in a million,” Holmstead said. “Emissions have been substantially reduced over the past decade and will continue to improve over the next decade,” he told the panel.

Bonnie New, MD, Houston physician and a member of Physicians for Clean Air, said she is concerned about harmful air pollutants. She told the panel that the one in a million for cancer deaths does not take into account all the other negative health effectives of living near petroleum refineries. “Hazardous air pollutants present serious health issues including cancer, neurological and respiratory diseases,” New said. “The cumulative disease risk for any population is more serious than the cancer risk indicates,” she added.

New explained that beyond the one in one million cancer risk benchmark, low-income people of color have increased health risks because of the stresses of the living situation added to the toxic environment. “Accepting higher risk is exactly what you don’t want to do,” New said.

Houston Mayor Bill White told the panel, “We shouldn’t stick our heads in the sand and ignore cumulative effects of benzene from stationary sources. We ought to look at the science of what is in the atmosphere,” White said. He challenged the EPA to look at best practices and gave as examples of lowered emissions from refineries in New Orleans, New Jersey and California.

“I have invited anyone to come and see me if they would go out of business if they reduce benzene, and no one has come,” White continued. “Our charge to the scientists is to call it like they see it. We want people to help us figure out what the right thing to do is.”

The EPA will decide next August whether to adopt new standards. They are accepting written comments through December 28. You can review the proposed rules (Docket ID Number EPA-HQ-OAR-2003-0146) at http://www.epa.gov/air/ozonepollution/actions.html. To send your comments electronically, go to http://www.regulations.gov. Comments may be sent by e-mail to a-and-r-docket@epa.gov, Attention Docket ID No. EPA-HQ-OAR-2003-0146.

To comment via U.S. Mail sent two copies of your comments to:
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
Mailcode 6102T
1200 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW
Washington, D.C. 20460
Attention Docket ID Number: EPA-HQ-OAR-2003-0146