-Caveat Lector-
Begin forwarded message:
From: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Date: March 11, 2007 10:01:44 PM PDT
To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Cc: [EMAIL PROTECTED], [EMAIL PROTECTED], [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Subject: Oil is Murder
http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/story/13751944/
the_dark_side_of_texas_pete_maiden_reports_on_corpus_christis_koch_ind
ustries
The Dark Side of Texas: Koch Industries
PETE MAIDEN
Bobi Miller needs only to open the door of her home in Corpus
Christi, Texas, to see toxic waste from the Koch West oil refinery.
Miller's back yard is covered in a thick black sludge, and across
the street is the school where she used to teach before a lawsuit
revealed that the Koch refinery had released ninety tons of
benzene, a highly toxic chemical. Miller and other teachers were
often forced to implement a safety procedure called "shelter in
place," keeping students inside with the air conditioner off on
days when Koch was pumping waste into the air. Today the school's
playground is completely deserted: The company bought the property,
and children no longer play in the yard.
Before the school closed, Miller would often come home to find her
husband, Jim, prone on the couch with a headache. In 2001, Jim was
diagnosed with thyroid cancer and had a tumor removed. Today, when
he speaks, there is a distinct wheeze, and his breathing is
labored. Bobi suffers from sarcoidosis, a disease that causes
shortness of breath, persistent coughing and skin rashes. "We've
always wondered whether that's from living close to the
refineries," she says. "We very often hear the sirens from the
refinery, and we don't know what they mean. It's very scary."
Short-term exposure to benzene, a natural part of crude oil and
gasoline, can cause drowsiness, dizziness and unconsciousness; long-
term effects include leukemia and a decrease in the size of women's
ovaries. According to a recent study by the Texas Department of
State Health Services, overall birth defects in Corpus Christi from
1996 to 2002 was eighty-four percent higher than the state average.
In 2000, a federal grand jury indicted Koch, now the largest
privately run company in the world, on 97 felony counts of
violating air-pollution standards at its Koch West refinery in
Corpus Christi. According to the Justice Department, the plant
released about ninety-one tons of benzene in its liquid-waste
streams -- some fifteen times greater than the regulatory limits to
the refinery.
Koch settled the case for $20 million, pled guilty to one count and
maintains that the excessive benzene release was never proven. "All
Koch companies strive to operate their facilities in a safe and
environmentally responsible manner," says a company spokesman.
Yet Corpus Christi is hardly the only place where Koch has been
accused of violating environmental standards. In 2000, Koch was
fined $35 million -- the largest civil penalty ever imposed on a
company under federal environmental law -- for more than 300 oil
spills into lakes, streams and waterways from its pipelines and oil
facilities in six states. "In one case," the Environmental
Protection Agency reported, "almost 100,000 gallons of oil was
spilled in Texas and caused a twelve-mile oil slick on Nueces Bay
and Corpus Christi Bay."
In Texas, many blame the state for failing to curb Koch's
pollution. The Texas Commission on Environmental Quality, which is
responsible for monitoring pollution at Koch's refineries, lists
pages of "Air Emission Event Reports" on its Web site that describe
repeated violations by the company.
Yet the commission has taken little or no action against Koch.
Instead of being a watchdog, the TCEQ is "the lap dog of the
industry," says Dr. Neil Carmen, who served for twelve years as a
regional investigator at the commission. "The failure of the TCEQ's
investigators to take action on the refinery's serious benzene
violations reflects how poorly the agency is doing its job at large
industrial plants."
Since effective oversight by the state of Koch isn't forthcoming,
citizens in Corpus Christi have taken it upon themselves to monitor
the pollution. Suzie Canales, the director of Citizens for
Environmental Justice, lost a sister to cancer and has two young
grandchildren with birth defects. She has teamed up with Melissa
Jarrell, an assistant professor of criminal justice at Texas A&M
University who is working on a book about Koch called Environmental
Crime and the Media. The two women are organizing local residents,
maintaining a constant watch on the company's refineriesand
checking the surrounding area for elevated levels of toxins.
"An estimated tens of thousands of Americans die each year as a
result of environmental pollution," Jarrell says. "These refineries
are getting away with silent mass murder."
Posted Mar 09, 2007 12:50 PM
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