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. 2021 May;129(5):52001.
doi: 10.1289/EHP8391. Epub 2021 May 5.

A Different Kind of Storm: Natech Events in Houston's Fenceline Communities

Wendee Nicole

A Different Kind of Storm: Natech Events in Houston's Fenceline Communities

Wendee Nicole. Environ Health Perspect. 2021 May.
No abstract available

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Figures

Map of facilities in Manchester. Facility types include waste disposal, chemical manufacturing and storage, shipping, metal manufacturing and recycling, shipbuilding and repair, petroleum processing and storage, and industrial supplies. A diamond icon indicates that 7 of the 19 facilities are required to report potential or actual hazardous releases to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.
Graphical abstract
Three photographs showing researchers looking toward a chemical plant, a researcher collecting a soil sample, and a researcher collecting an air sample.
In the days following Hurricane Laura, Garett Sansom and Leanne Fawkes of TAMU collected air and soil samples along the streets of Manchester, across the street from Valero’s Houston Refinery. TAMU investigators are working closely with local partner Texas Environmental Justice Advocacy Services to study chemical exposures in the community. All images: © Wendee Nicole.
Map of facilities in Manchester. Facility types include waste disposal, chemical manufacturing and storage, shipping, metal manufacturing and recycling, shipbuilding and repair, petroleum processing and storage, and industrial supplies. A diamond icon indicates that 7 of the 19 facilities are required to report potential or actual hazardous releases to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.
One of several fenceline communities along the Houston Ship Channel, Manchester is home to 19 facilities representing numerous industries. However, only 7 of these facilities are required to report potential or actual hazardous releases to the U.S. EPA—the others do not reach the reporting threshold set by the agency, although they are very likely emitting hazardous pollutants. Image: Courtesy Union of Concerned Scientists.
Houston Ship Channel with gray skies, falling rain, and rising brown floodwaters during Hurricane Harvey.
Companies along the Houston Ship Channel battened down their hatches as Hurricane Harvey pushed floodwaters ever higher on 27 August 2017. The storm would go on to cause a multitude of structural failures, explosions, spills, and other natech events. Image: © Thomas Shea/AFP via Getty Images.
Photograph of burned-out shell of a refrigerated trailer and a figure indicating a timeline of events between 24 August and 4 September 2017 in the chemical plant fires at the Arkema Crosby facility.
Arkema produces organic peroxides that are used in a variety of consumer products. Some of these chemicals must be stored at low temperatures. With Hurricane Harvey’s floodwaters rising, workers began powering down parts of Arkema’s Crosby facility; when it became clear the water was not stopping, the ride-out crew frantically worked to secure the unstable organic peroxides in refrigerated trailers. Despite heroic efforts, the chemicals in three of the trailers decomposed and ignited. The remaining trailers were ignited in a controlled burn. Altogether, 175 tons of organic peroxides burned. Both images: Courtesy U.S. Chemical Safety Board.
Graphical abstract showing how ToxPi figures and Geographic Information System mapping are combined to produce tract-specific distributions of vulnerabilities.
The HGBEnviroScreen tool, developed by TAMU investigators, quantifies and visualizes the constellation of vulnerabilities within a community. Image: Bhandari et al. (2020).
Three architectural renderings showing proposed bioswales, a rain garden, and a detention pond.
TAMU Superfund Center investigators have proposed a variety of nature-based solutions to help Galena Park mitigate flood risks. Bioswales are vegetated ditches that absorb and channel stormwater, whereas rain gardens receive and soak up excess runoff. Detention ponds collect stormwater and store it as it slowly drains out an outlet in the bottom of the basin. (Retention ponds, by comparison, contain water all the time.) All images: Courtesy Rui Zhu and Galen Newman/Texas A&M University.
Map of temperatures throughout the United States on 16 February 2021 with gradations of blue shading to indicate how much colder current temperatures were than the 1979 to 2000 average.
While hurricanes may be the most common type of extreme weather to affect Gulf Coast residents, February 2021 brought a whole new challenge: temperatures that plunged below freezing, crashing the electrical grid and leaving millions of people without electricity., Dubbed Winter Storm Uri by the National Weather Service, the polar air brought snow, freezing rain, ice, and record-low temperatures for which neither homes nor chemical facilities were adapted. A sudden loss of electricity left some industrial facilities in a lurch, requiring emergency shutdown and startup procedures that caused excess emissions—3.5 million pounds from 200 Texas facilities over a 12-day period, according to one unpublished estimate. In Manchester, the Valero refinery released more than 44,500 pounds of excess emissions including carbon monoxide, hydrogen sulfide, ammonia, and sulfur dioxide. Image: © The New York Times.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

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    1. Johnston J, Cushing L. 2020. Chemical exposures, health, and environmental justice in communities living on the fenceline of industry. Curr Environ Health Rep 7(1):48–57, PMID: 31970715, 10.1007/s40572-020-00263-8. - DOI - PMC - PubMed
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