|
|
|
| |
|
|
|
|
|
       |
Residents want solution to Port Arthur pollution problem05/24/2002 By DON WALL / WFAA-TV Port Arthur is home to 47 refineries and petrochemical plants. They produce the energy that the nation needs. However, one neighborhood is paying a price. People around West Port Arthur call it "gasoline alley." The poor, rundown community exists in the shadows of the nation's busiest and most productive oil refineries and petrochemical plants. Virtually every day, Cullen Como, 10, gets a breathing treatment for asthma, which causes him to miss school often. His family blames the refineries across the street. Also Online Video: Don Wall reports "I don't think anyone should have to live so close to these refineries," Port Arthur resident Kendra Prince said. "It's dangerous, and everybody around here is sick - everybody. It's just killing off people." A new study by a University of Texas toxicologist confirms for the first time what many local health care providers have seen for years: a link between health problems in Port Arthur and the town's industrial pollution. Other statistics place Texas at the top of the list nationwide for production of industrial pollution. The plants emit a toxic soup of chemicals - millions of pounds per year, according to the Environmental Protection Agency. The chemicals, including carbon tetrachloride, ammonia, and benzine, are known to cause respiratory problems and cancer, as well as affecting brain functions, organ development and reproduction. "Arguably, Port Arthur is probably one of the ten worst toxic hot spots in the country, and probably in the top five," said environmentalist Denny Larson. Larson has teamed up with local activist Hilton Kelley to form a local 'bucket brigade'. The bucket in this case is a simple, but effective air sampler. Air samples taken during toxic releases have shown unhealthy levels of dangerous chemicals. "Too many people are dying from cancer, (and) too many people have thyroid problems," community activist Hilton Kelley said. "We have two dialysis clinics in this small town, and it's time for the citizens to say, 'enough is enough'." Industry officials say pollution controls have improved dramatically over the past 25 years, but in order to meet America's growing fuel needs, the refineries continue to expand, and that means more emissions and more pollution coming into the neighborhoods. Refinery manager Tom Purves chairs the Port Arthur industrial and community advisory group. "It's not my place to say how close or not close they should live," Purves said. "Our main issue has been to try to educate folks in the community about our operations. Those of us who work here spend most of our days, and a lot of our nights, in these plants, and we feel like they are very safe places to work." Community relations may be improving, but public health is not. "We are at an epidemic proportion of infant mortality deaths here, we are at an epidemic rate of cancer here, and it's time that we stand up for ourselves and save ourselves," Kelley said. |
|
|