Houston as a model city: Facing the challenges of an environmental crisis
Toxic emissions from refineries and chemical plants
by Vicki Wolf, September 2006

One of the most urgent challenges for the Houston area is the life-threatening toxic emissions from refineries and chemical plants. Harris County continues to be ranked as one of the top ten worst, dirtiest counties in the United States according to emissions reported in the Environmental Protection Agency’s 2002 Toxic Release Inventory and listed on www.scorecard.org.

Mayor Bill White, in an interview with CLEAN in January, announced that monitoring and reducing refinery and plant emissions is a top priority for Houston. He created staff positions, hired technical experts and added people to the legal department to take action on environmental compliance. “The biggest short-term impact is controlling emissions of toxic chemicals particularly in olefins – ethylene and 1-3 butadiene – from refineries and petrochemical plants,” White said. The city plans to take civil action against companies that exceed emission standards. One of the successes claimed by the city early in the year was getting Texas Petrochemical to sign an agreement for reductions in emissions.

The mayor also established the Task Force on the Health Effects of Air Pollution that published a report this year titled, “A Closer Look at Air Pollution in Houston: Identifying Priority Health Risks.” The Task Force concluded that “. . . ambient air pollution in Houston is harmful to exposed individuals . . .” and that Houstonians experience increased risk of illness and premature death from current exposures.

The task force recommended focusing on the 21 air pollutants – ozone, fine particles. These toxins are definite health risks -- 12 are known to cause cancer or other non cancer related illness, and nine are likely to cause serious illness.

According to the 2002 TRI report for Harris County, more that 2,500,000 pounds of recognized carcinogens were released with another 1,800,000 pounds of suspected carcinogens; more than 6,600,000 pounds of cardiovascular or blood toxins; more than 2,200,000 pounds of developmental toxins; and almost 1,400,000 pounds of known reproductive toxins with another 6,400,000 pounds of suspected reproductive toxins. Other toxins found in the air in Harris County include more than 4,600,000 toxins that are suspected to damage the immune system; 7,000,000 suspected kidney toxins; almost 10,900,000 gastrointestinal or liver toxins; 19,600,000 suspected respiratory toxins, 12,500,000 suspected skin or sense organ toxins; and more ( www.scorecard.org).

Municipal government has limited authority and relies on the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ) and the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to enforce the Clean Air Act.

Studies and reports from a number of non-governmental organizations show the reports drastically underestimate emissions. Even when excessive emissions are reported, corrective action is rarely taken. Communities that bear the health effects of the pollution receive little or no compensation.

“The public needs to understand that the releases that are reported by the petrochemical industry and rubber-stamped by regulatory agencies are tremendously underestimating emissions being released and the risk to the populations,” says Michael Sommer, PhD, an environmental chemist who has been investigating the petrochemical industry for 10 years and toxic waste sites for one year.

Out of concern about the health effects of toxic emissions, citizen groups like Houston-Galveston Citizen’s Air Monitoring Project (HGCAMP) and Community In-power Development Association, Inc. (CIDA) in Port Arthur are monitoring the air in their neighborhoods and reporting excessive and illegal toxic emissions to the TCEQ. They have received disappointing responses. “The TCEQ should monitor this large industry and get them to comply, but they are not very involved in enforcement,” says Hilton Kelley, founder of CIDA. In some cases, CIDA has referred information to the EPA when they have been unable to get the TCEQ to take action.

Kelley says even when TCEQ does issue a notice of violation, the company can choose to pay a fine or participate in a supplemental environmental program (SEP). Industry tends to get by with funding projects that have little to do with protecting citizens for harmful emissions. “I have put forth SEP ideas for monitoring the air, but they never get funded,” Kelley adds.

One source of unreported and unregulated emissions is upsets, or events, that occur when a plant is started up or shut down, or during maintenance. Some upset emissions occur during accidents. Other upsets are due to operator error or leaks, and others are a result of illegal burning of products that do not meet specifications. Upset emissions are not included in the reported and permitted emissions for the facility.

A study conducted by Public Citizen, titled Industrial Upset Pollutions: Who Pays the Price?, found that the TCEQ took action on only 1 percent of 7,500 cases reported to the agency in 2004. The study found that one plant released 10 times more of one toxic chemical during a single upset than they were permitted to release during the entire year. Another plant emitted 37 times more toxic pollution during several upsets than permitted to release over the entire year.

Public Citizen made 12 recommendations including that TCEQ require that all routine or predictable emissions be included under permitted emissions and allow no routine or predictable emissions to qualify for an exemption or defense to penalties.

Effective January of this year, the TCEQ enacted new rules that will require facilities to have emissions resulting from scheduled start-ups, shutdowns and maintenance authorized and included under permitted emissions, or face a violation. The rule change will be phased in over a seven year period, according to Ramiro Garcia, Air Program liason with TCEQ’s Field Operations Support Division. TCEQ reports that significant reductions in reported emissions were observed between 2003 and 2005, including a 76 percent reduction of reported emissions in Houston. The report says that “this data indicates that the new rules have resulted in the reduction of unauthorized emission.”

Public Citizen’s report also suggested that the TCEQ increase monitoring at the fence lines of facilities, especially for air toxics, require additional monitoring for facilities reporting continual excess emissions and that all excess emissions be promptly reported.

In January, Rebecca Rentz was hired as the first TCEQ air quality director for Region 12, which includes Houston. At that time, TCEQ was initiating pilot projects to improve monitoring.

“In an ideal world we would have an ideal monitoring system and would be able to determine when reductions are being effectuated,” Rentz said in an interview with CLEAN in January. “We have fugitive emissions. New tools may allow us to target these, such as an infrared camera – it looks like a video camera, and can view VOCs through a heat-sensing lens. It’s effective from an investigative standpoint and industry likes it as well – finding emissions helps them locate leaking and loss of valuable product.”

After nine months in her new post with TCEQ, Rentz says action is being taken as a result of using the infrared camera. Investigations with the cameras have shown that tank terminals are a significant source of benzene emissions. The TCEQ is working with Kinder Morgan, a company that sells tank storage for gas or diesel, and has obtained an agreement to reduce emissions at three of the company’s facilities. TCEQ also is working with other tank companies to reduce emissions.

“When we have a certain area of concern, for example benzene is a priority right now, we target the investigation and go on reconnaissance and look outside the fence line to see where emissions are coming from,” Rentz says.

“Using this camera has shown us it’s not necessarily the big guys,” she adds. “It reveals smaller operations may be emitting more than we expected. In some cases, what’s reported on paper is not helping us as much as what we see on the camera,” Rentz says. The camera also has revealed that barges, not regulated by the state, emit large amounts of toxins as they travel through the Houston Ship Channel.

Solutions for monitoring and reducing toxic emissions from refineries and chemical plants are urgently needed if Houston is ever to be a model city providing a safe and pleasant place for people to live. This issue needs to be treated like the crisis that it is. Collaboration among local, state and national government, as well as non-governmental organizations, citizens, health care centers and industry is required now to protect public health and care for those who already are experiencing health problems from exposure to environmental toxins.