|
|
|
| |
|
|
|
|
|
       |
Protesters call for hearing to prevent TNRCC from issuing permit for Tier Two ProjectMay 14, 2002 By ANGELA WEAVER "American Health before Corporate Wealth!" was the call from Hilton Kelley and four others of the environmental activist group, Community Inpower and Development Association, as they tried to deliver a petition to Premcor Refining, Inc. on Monday morning. Kelley is calling for a contested hearing to prevent the Texas Natural Resource Conservation Commission from issuing a permit for the Tier Two Project at Premcor. The unit in question would reduce the sulphur content in gasoline to meet the Environmental Protection Agency's regulations calling for cleaner burning fuel. "We must build these facilities to meet EPA regulations," Morris Carter, manager of the Environmental Health and Safety Department of Premcor, said. "Yes, there will be emissions. There's no such thing as a processing unit that emits zero." However, Carter said he and many plant officials have met with Kelley for several hours at a time, explaining that while this unit would indeed add 525 tons of emissions to the air, the company has reduced emissions by several thousand tons in the past several years, offsetting the emissions of the new units by far. "He has this information, he's just not choosing to let the public know,"Carter said. "We have offered to bring Mr. Kelley into the plant for a tour but he insists on bringing in people from the outside that we don't know, are from out of the town with an agenda of their own and don't have a stake in the community." "You can understand that we can't just give any group carte blanche to have free run over the facility," he added. "He is a citizen and we certainly want to be responsive to the citizens in our community." Kelley said Premcor has something to hide or they would allow his "experts" to attend the tour. Kelley said he collected between 400 - 500 signatures on a petition that should increase the chances a hearing will be scheduled concerning the TNRCC permit. He said hearings are generally conducted in Austin, but hopes it will be held locally to allow concerned citizens to voice their opinions. "If the agency cares about the citizens, they will come here," Rick Abraham, a member of Texan's United, another environmentalist group based in Houston, said. "We've challenged many permits and if anyone has a good reason, it's these people." Annie Edwards, a senior citizen who participated in the protest, said shehas asthma and respiratory illnesses because of her close proximity to Premcor. "I'm really in bad shape sometimes," she said. Edwards said she had a tumor on her ovaries in 1993 and a brain aneurysm in 1995 that she attributes to pollution from the refinery. Dorothy Marcel used to live at Carver Terrace Apartments, but has moved recently. She said she has suffered allergies from the pollution and blames Premcor for a friend's cancer. "They just need to clean it up," she said. Carter said Premcor spends about $6 million a year on environmental controls to reduce emissions. In addition to adding state-of-the-art advanced environmental controls installed on older equipment, they have shut down many older units and new equipment is constructed under rigorous EPA standards. "You have to look at the whole facility, not just one addition," Carter said. "If you ignore the decreases, then you reach the erroneous conclusion that all we do is add emissions and never decrease." |
|
|