Citizens for Environmental Justice, Sierra
Club, and Congressman Solomon Ortiz request Federal
Agencies’ action to address Toxic Oil Refinery
Pollution
Citing particular concern
about Impacts from Toxic Benzene, Groups and
Representative Ortiz call for Independent Studies
Corpus Christi , Texas -- Sierra Club (SC) and
Citizens for Environmental Justice (CFEJ) requested
in a letter this week to new EPA Administrator
Lisa Jackson that the EPA Office of Environmental
Justice disregard a flawed industry-funded assessment
and instead work with communities adjacent to oil
refineries to assess public health impacts from
refinery pollution. The SC/CFEJ letter outlines
oil industry tactics continuing since President
Obama took office that are undermining local environmental
justice efforts and attempting to downplay fence-line
community impacts from Gulf Coast refinery pollution,
in particular benzene.
One such concern involves a power point presentation
titled “Comprehensive Review: Benzene Air
Monitoring Data in Corpus Christi” (Spring
2009) by Laurie Haws and funded by Flint Hills
Resources -- formerly called KOCH Refinery. KOCH
has been convicted for criminal violations of the
Clean Air Act for excessive benzene pollution.
“Despite the fact that Corpus Christi
has one of the highest concentrations of oil
refineries in the United States dumping almost
70 tons of benzene in 2007 alone, the review,
bought and paid for by industry, would have you
believe that living along refinery row is good
for your health,” said Cindy Pena,
with Citizens for Environmental Justice (CFEJ). “The
fact is that the Flint Hills review is fundamentally
flawed. It conveniently excludes information
on the vast limitations of stationary monitoring
data upon which the report based its conclusions.”
The letter to Administrator Jackson includes
a seven-page preliminary critique by Dr. Neil Carman
of the Flint Hills (KOCH) presentation; it addresses
a problematic Regional Health Awareness Board that
the groups say has been co-opted by industry; and
it asks Jackson for three action items to address
refinery toxins in Corpus Christi:
SC/CFEJ request that EPA Administrator Lisa
Jackson and EPA’s Region 6 support
completion and publication of a bio-monitoring
study conducted by a team of scientists led by
Dr. K.C. Donnelly and request that EPA conduct
a debate of that study by the EJ community, EPA/Region
6, and industry. Furthermore, SC/CFEJ
recommend that the federal Agency for Toxic Substances
and Disease Registry (TSDR) and the federal Center
for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) suspend
the request by the industry’s Regional
Health Awareness Board (RHAB) regarding a second
Corpus Christi bio-monitoring study at this time
until the first bio-monitoring study by Dr. Donnelly’s
team has been published, and a debate conducted
by the EJ community, EPA / Region 6, and industry.
SC/CFEJ request that the EPA administrator
and EPA Region 6 conduct an audit in
Corpus Christi of the heated refinery tanks for
benzene emissions, since a concern is
that the benzene emissions inventory is inaccurate
and may result in the under reporting of benzene
vapor losses. Refineries may be improperly modeling
benzene emissions from heated tanks with the
EPA’s Tank Model 4.09D used in Texas, and
TCEQ has yet to require refineries to use proper
model inputs including the correct tank temperature.
Benzene tank losses may be higher than reported.
Understanding that the EPA Region 6 Office
of Environmental Justice (OEJ) has limited resources,
SC/CFEJ ask that the EPA OEJ resources
be better utilized by not participating in the
industry-founded RHAB and, instead, work with
local EJ communities on a forum that
would address community concerns.
“The oil refineries want to produce
their own report, but that would never associate
community health problems with the toxic emissions
of chemicals like benzene from the refineries,” said
Neil Carman, chemist and Clean Air Program director
for Sierra Club. “Data from the
Texas Department of State Health Services reveals
an 84% higher rate of overall birth defects in
Corpus Christi. The government agencies set up
to protect our citizens should not allow industry
to investigate and report on the causes of health
concerns in adjacent communities! The EPA’s
Office of Environmental Justice must work with
the communities at risk who are demanding justice.”
Simultaneous to the Sierra Club/Citizens for
Environmental Justice letter to the EPA, Congressman
Solomon Ortiz of Corpus Christi sent a letter on
July 2 to U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services
Kathleen Sebelius requesting that the federal Agency
for Toxic Substances & Disease Registry (ATSDR)
follow through with a petition request for public
health assessments to be conducted on individuals
in communities adjacent to the refineries.
The petition request to ATSDR was originally
submitted seven years ago in 2002 by CFEJ for help
in the Corpus Christi EJ communities near the oil
refineries because of serious concerns about health
effects reported by the residents.
“We are asking for ATSDR to work with
the EJ community in Corpus Christi and participate
with us in a public health assessment,” said
Suzie Canales of CFEJ. “We are also
seeking the EPA Administrator’s support in
working together with ATSDR and the Corpus Christi
EJ community as a collaborative effort.”
