When Hurricanes Lead to Industrial Fires, Minority Neighborhoods Can
Take a Hit
Hurricane Laura rolled over a coast studded with refineries and chemical
plants. Other storms have caused the release of toxic substances, often
affecting poorer or minority communities.
Video
00:00
0:31
0:31Dangerous Smoke Blows From Chemical Fire After Storm
A fire that broke out at a chemical plant in Westlake, La., was caused
by storm damage from Hurricane Laura. The widespread smoke prompted
shelter-in-place directives for the surrounding
communities.CreditCredit...Photo by William Widmer for The New York Times
John Schwartz <https://www.nytimes.com/by/john-schwartz>Hiroko Tabuchi
<https://www.nytimes.com/by/hiroko-tabuchi>
ByJohn Schwartz <https://www.nytimes.com/by/john-schwartz>andHiroko
Tabuchi <https://www.nytimes.com/by/hiroko-tabuchi>
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NY Times, PublishedAug. 27, 2020UpdatedAug. 28, 2020
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A fire blazed, and acrid smoke poured from a Louisiana chemical factory,
confirming fears that Hurricane Laura’s ravaging winds and water would
release toxic pollution in a region central to the petrochemical
industry that is increasingly exposed to major storms.
The Louisiana governor, John Bel Edwards, warned residents around the
burning site, a Biolab Inc. plant near Lake Charles, toshelter in place
<https://twitter.com/LouisianaGov/status/1299008192266088453>and to
“close your windows and doors andTURN OFF YOUR AIR CONDITIONING UNITS
<https://twitter.com/LouisianaGov/status/1299009238317043712>.”
The Louisiana and Texas coastlines, which have endured many storms over
the decades, are studded with sprawling facilities that produce fuel,
plastics and other products. And while no one is safe when a hurricane
strikes, poor and largely Black neighborhoods often located near
industrial sites are particularly vulnerable.
Biolab is one of more than a dozen industrial facilities near one such
community, Mossville, whose residents have long been exposed to the
pollution that modern chemical manufacturing produces.
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“The Biolab facility that’s burning out of control right now is part of
the toxic soup that Mossville residents have been exposed to for
decades,” said Monique Harden, assistant director of law and policy at
the Deep South Center for Environmental Justice in New Orleans.
Communities close to industrial sites like Mossville, and the Westside
neighborhood of Port Arthur, Texas, live with pollution levelsthat
affect health
<https://www.nytimes.com/2020/05/17/climate/pollution-poverty-coronavirus.html>.
“The fence-line community is the one that’s bearing the burden of
pollution and industrial encroachment,” said Dr. Robert Bullard, a
professor of urban planning and environmental policy at Texas Southern
University and co-chairman of theNational Black Environmental Justice
Network <https://www.nbejn.com/>, an advocacy group devoted to
addressing racism. “It’s just that simple,” he said.
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“That’s not to say white people won’t get hurt” when storms come, he
said. “Whoever is in the path will get hurt.” However, “It’s almost
predictable who will get the worst of it.”
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ImageDamage to the town of Westlake, La., near Lake Charles, with smoke
from the chemical-plant fire in the distance.
Damage to the town of Westlake, La., near Lake Charles, with smoke from
the chemical-plant fire in the distance.Credit...William Widmer for The
New York Times
President Obama had moved to strengthen chemical disaster rules,
adopting new regulations that would, among other measures, better
disclose what hazardous chemicals are stored at industrial facilities
and require companies to submit to independent investigations after
accidents. But after lobbying by a coalition of chemical and fossil fuel
industry groups, who argued that the new rules would “impose costly and
burdensome obligations on facilities
<https://www.epa.gov/sites/production/files/2019-06/documents/rmp_coalition_rmp_reconsideration_petition_508.pdf>,”
the Trump administration reversed those stricter standards.
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The E.P.A. estimates that the rollback will save Americans roughly $88
million per year. However, the changes mean that it will be more
difficult for local communities, as well as emergency responders like
firefighters, to know what hazardous chemicals are stored at local
industrial sites.
When Tropical Storm Harvey hit Houston and the surrounding area in
2017,pollution followed
<https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2017/09/08/us/houston-hurricane-harvey-harzardous-chemicals.html>:
46 facilities in 13 counties reported an estimated 4.6 million pounds of
airborne emissions thatexceeded state limits
<http://www2.tceq.texas.gov/oce/eer/>, and at least 14 toxic waste sites
were flooded or damaged, raising fears of waterborne contamination.
Floodwaters inundated a chemical plant in the suburb of Crosby, damaging
a cooling system at the site andtriggering an explosion
<https://www.nytimes.com/2017/08/31/us/texas-chemical-plant-explosion-arkema.html>.
A storm the size of Laura hitting Houston would be a nightmare, said
Terence O’Rourke, an environmental lawyer with the Harris County
Attorney’s office. “You don’t want it to hit the largest petrochemical
complex in the United States,” he said. “If it’s got to hit somewhere,
somewhere else is better.”
However, no matter which path Hurricane Laura took, major industrial
facilities would have very likely been nearby.
Up the coast from Houston toward Louisiana, the industrial area known as
the Golden Triangle contains many large refineries and chemical plants.
Port Arthur has the Motiva oil refinery, North America’s largest.
Beaumont has a major Exxon Mobil refinery, and refineries along the
Sabine-Neches ship channelmake
<https://www.portofbeaumont.com/business-with-the-port/transportation/>most
of the nation’s military jet fuel.
Farther east, the city of Orange has dozens of chemical plants, and,
across the Sabine River, which separates Texas from Louisiana, the chain
continues, with Lake Charles home to a cluster of major chemical plants,
including the Sasol Chemicals complex, owned by a South African
company.Many more plants are planned
<https://www.nola.com/news/environment/article_49fe4540-f74a-11e9-8d20-eb0f97323b91.html>.
“This whole area is target rich for a hurricane, with serious
environmental consequences,” said Jim Blackburn, the co-director of Rice
University’s Severe Storm Prediction, Education and Evacuation From
Disaster Center.
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While some of the facilities were designed to withstand storms, climate
change is making hurricanes and flooding more damaging, potentially
rendering the old defenses inadequate. The Port Arthur refinery has a
14-foot levee, but the Hurricane Laura storm surge estimate was for
water as high as 20 feet.
“We have a lot of hubris about how smart we are and how well we can
build,” Mr. Blackburn said, “but if we don’t build for the right storm
event, it’s not going to work.”
Image
High water and heavy industry on Lake Charles on Thursday.
High water and heavy industry on Lake Charles on
Thursday.Credit...William Widmer for The New York Times
Biolab, the site of Thursday’s fire, specializes in making pool and spa
cleaning products, according the website of its parent company, KIK
Custom Products. Data from the Environmental Protection Agency shows
that the Biolab site stores large amounts of chlorine, which poses a
fire and explosion risk.
A chlorine leak from the Biolab facility appeared to have started the
fire. Colonel Kevin W. Reeves, the Superintendent of the Louisiana State
Police, said that an “undetermined” amount of the leaked chlorine had
begun generating heat and burning, releasing gas into the atmosphere.
The crew at the Biolab made several “unsuccessful” attempts to
extinguish the flames, Mr. Reeves said, which began at some point during
the course of the storm. By late Thursday, the fire had reached a
“stable point,” he said.
Over the past 10 years, the Biolab site has released more than 170,000
pounds of chlorine to the air, including 21,900 pounds last year, E.P.A.
data shows. More than 1,500 people live within a 3-mile radius of the
plant, of which 30 percent are minorities, and about a third of
households earn less than $25,000 a year, half Louisiana’s median
household income.
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Daniel Hoadley, a spokesman for Biolab’s parent company, KIK Custom
Products, said the chemical plant had been evacuated when the hurricane
hit and damaged the site, starting a fire. All employees were safe, he
said, and the company was working with emergency responders to minimize
chemical releases.
Getting through storms and recovery is more difficult for vulnerable
communities, Dr. Bullard said, noting that it’s tougher for poorer
people, who may lack money or transportation, to relocate out of harm’s
way. They must rely on FEMA buses and disaster shelters that, during the
pandemic,could become incubators for the coronavirus
<https://www.nytimes.com/2020/03/21/climate/virus-fema-disaster-aid-shelter.html>.
“Covid has provided another level of complexity to the whole thing,” Dr.
Bullard said.
One of the problems, Ms. Harden said, is that the law gives government
officials broad discretion about who gets help and how much. She cited
the sparring over aid to Puerto Rico after Hurricane Maria. “The
potential for a community to be neglected, or to be put in a worse
situation, is always present under the law,” she said.
Federal aid can also have the effect of widening the gap between rich
and poor,as more aid flows to higher-income areas
<https://www.nytimes.com/2019/10/09/climate/disaster-flood-buyouts-climate-change.html>.
Meanwhile, Mossville, a historically Black community founded by an
ex-slave, is disappearing, largely displaced by Lake Charles’ industrial
expansion.
Delma Bennett, president of the Concerned Citizens of Mossville, noted
that much of his community has been bought out by the encroaching Sasol
plant. He still has a home there, he said, but he and his wife moved to
Lake Charles to gain a little distance from the pollution. “She felt she
was getting sick,” he said, “because of Mossville.”
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