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Late at night or early in the morning when plants burn off
excess gases, the flames light up the whole sky in the
neighborhood.
Some residents say the air has a chemical-based smell that they
find hard to describe but disappears once they drive a few miles
away from the homes that stretch along the Houston Ship Channel,
a waterway connecting the plants to the ocean. They claim that
the pollution is taking a toll on their health, although the
scientific evidence does not prove that.
"I want to get out of here and go to the country and find some
cleaner air," said Eugene Barragan, a 56-year-old electrician
who has lived most of his life by the refineries. "It would be
better for me and the kids."
Doctors have found four lumps in his lungs and now more growths,
according to the chest X-rays and medical records he showed
Reuters. The first ones were not cancerous. Barragan says he has
not been able to afford imaging of the new growths. He hopes
they are benign so he can watch his children grow up.
"When I work hard, I start coughing and coughing and can't
stop," he said. "I know a lot of people who have problems like
that."
POLLUTION REDUCED
Lillian Riojas, Valero Energy Corp's chief spokeswoman, said the
company has worked to reduce pollution at its refinery since
purchasing it in 1997.
In the 22 years since Valero took over the refinery, ambient
benzene levels have dropped 63% to 0.34 parts per billion,
according to data from 1997 to 2019 from Texas Commission on
Environmental Quality.
"There's a narrative that air quality is getting worse, but
that's not what the emission data is showing," Riojas said.
The Texas Commission on Environmental Quality, which enforces
federal and state environmental laws, gives Valero's refinery
the top compliance level possible, said Andrew Keese, a
spokesman for the agency. The other nearby refineries and
chemical plants earned a compliance rating of satisfactory.
Of the other plants bordering Manchester, Goodyear Tire and
Rubber Co has the second highest-rating for compliance with
environmental regulations, Keese said.
Goodyear "implemented several changes that resulted in lower
emissions from our facility," said Connie Deibel, a company
spokeswoman.
LyondellBasell Industries, TPC Group [TPCL.UL] and Flint Hills
Resources, which operate facilities near Manchester, did not
reply to requests for comment about pollution in the area.
NO MONEY TO MOVE
A 2007 study, the most recent available, of nearly 1,000
childhood cancer cases by the University of Texas found children
living within 2 miles (3 km) of the Houston Ship Channel had a
56% higher risk of contracting acute lymphocytic leukemia than
children living within 10 miles (16 km) of the Ship Channel.
Researchers' analysis suggests an association between childhood
leukemia and air pollution. However the study, funded by
Houston's health department and the Centers for Disease Control
and Prevention, could not prove the pollutants caused the
illnesses.
For years, Dennys Nieto wanted to leave the neighborhood but was
only recently able to afford to move her and her family to a
different part of Texas.
"I suffer from asthma and pain in my lungs. It feels like I'm
being hit in the lungs,” Nieto said of her old neighborhood.
"Headaches, inflammation and pain in my throat. And also I have
erratic blood pressure and heartbeat."
She checks her blood pressure and listens to her heart beat
regularly.
"In the air I feel it's this we're all breathing. This is why I
want to leave from here," Nieto said of the Manchester area. "I
want to go somewhere that is far from the refineries so that I
can repair my life, repair my health and live better."
(See related photo essay here https://widerimage.reuters.com/story/these-houston-residents-dream-of-moving-to-where-the-air-is-clear)
(Reporting by Loren Elliott; additional reporting by Erwin Seba;
Editing by Lisa Shumaker)
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