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Loopholes Could Allow Refineries to Pollute More
The Como family lives across the street from one of the refineries, which routinely lights up the night sky with burning flares, fireballs, and smoke plumes that waft through the community.(1) The air regularly smells like rotten eggs from the hydrogen sulfide; burnt matches from the sulfur dioxide; and paint thinner from the benzene.(2) Another victim of the refinery pollution, Annie Edwards, describes her reaction to the pollution: "I panic and I can't catch enough air, and if I go outside, it's worse. I have to strap on my breathing machine at night so I don't pass on while I sleep."(3) Hilton Kelley sums up the problems he sees daily: "I know from walking door-to-door that these problems are widespread. Too many people are dying from cancer. Too many people have thyroid problems. We have two dialysis clinics in this small town, and it's time for the citizens to say, 'Enough is enough'...it's time to do something about this situation."(4) Port Arthur is home to three refineries that may be allowed to increase the amount of pollution they produce as a result of a change in the Clean Air Act proposed by the Bush administration. Jefferson County, where Port Arthur is located, sits on the Louisiana border, and industries straddling the state line in the vicinity released more than 173 million pounds of toxic and carcinogenic wastes into the air in 2000.(5) Texas leads the nation in pollution from manufacturing industries, and Louisiana ranks fourth.(6) Additionally, a 1996 Sierra Club study found that Jefferson County, Texas, ranks eighth among U.S. counties in the release of carcinogenic substances.(7) Once a thriving community of locally owned businesses, Port Arthur has been devastated by the flight of the middle class and the spread of strip malls, leaving much of the city a wasteland of vacant lots. Poverty and lack of health care facilities have combined with the high pollution levels to create a disproportionate health burden on the community. Port Arthur is overwhelmingly African-American, raising the issue of environmental justice in addition to its high poverty rate and poor health care access. Children especially suffer from rashes, nausea, asthma, coughs, and congestion,(8) and residents describe a high death rate, with funerals more frequent than in most neighboring locales. On June 13, the Bush administration proposed changes to the New Source Review (NSR) program,(9) which currently requires older factories, including refineries, to install modern pollution control equipment when they make changes that increase the amount of pollution they can produce. The administration's plan to weaken existing Clean Air Act protections could increase the pollution in the Port Arthur community by creating new loopholes that will allow area refineries to expand without installing adequate modern pollution controls. Neil Carman, a staff member at the Lone Star Chapter of the Sierra Club, has compiled a wealth of data identifying the types and impacts of the pollution produced by Port Arthur refineries. Changing New Source Review, he asserts, may allow these dirty facilities to increase the amount of pollution they release, further harming this already poisoned community. Carmen has found a relationship between refinery/chemical plant emissions and the health problems and illnesses alleged by the nearly 100 percent African-American population of Port Arthur. His information documents a lax Texas regulatory response to local complaints of refinery pollution.(10) As an alternative to NSR, the Bush administration has offered a proposal cynically dubbed Clear Skies. This proposal seeks to reduce power plants' emissions of soot, smog, and mercury pollution using a cap and trade system that allows polluters to buy and sell the right to pollute.11 However, it does nothing to reduce pollution from other industrial sources, including the refineries that plague the health of Port Arthur residents.(12) The pollution from refineries isn't limited to smog and soot. Refineries also produce significant amounts of toxic pollutants, including benzene, toluene, ethylbenzene, and nickel compounds. Neighbors breathe a complex soup of poisonous chemicals that has been connected to numerous health ailments, such as problems with brain function, anemia, organ development, and reproduction, and increased incidences of cancer.(13) In recent years, Port Arthur refineries have increased their capacity dramatically and may have made some expansions without first applying for new air control permits due to lax NSR enforcement. The combined capacity of these refineries increased by nearly 19 percent-more than 100,000 barrels of oil a day-between 1993 and 2001.(14) Under the Bush plan, polluters would be able to make such expansions without installing modern technology to reduce the associated pollution, adding to the noxious mixture that Port Arthur refineries disperse for residents to breathe. 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