November 7, 2008 – 12:47 pm
The water in Deer Park has been looking a little cloudy lately:
As Aimee Carroll pours a glass of water at her home in Deer Park, she cringes at the thought of drinking it. She says the nine people living there, including her four children, have all been sick the past few weeks.
“Nausea, diarrhea, vomiting,” she said. “My fourth grader had headaches.”
She was confused by a letter which the city sent out with water bills, saying the water had excessive levels of turbidity, that it that alone has no health effects, but that that the water could contain bacteria, viruses, and even parasites, and that those could cause all the symptoms seen at her house.
No need to worry: It’s not the water. It’s all those silly little things floating in it!
City officials say a container storing a chemical used to treat water for turbidity in Deer Park broke in late September.
Photo of Deer Park brand bottled water (not related): Flickr user Trish Heaps
Read more about: 77536, Deer Park, Water Quality
January 8, 2008 – 12:35 pm
That beautiful flare glowing from atop ExxonMobil Chemical’s Olefins plant in Baytown last Thursday night wasn’t just a pretty New Year’s display for the city. It came with a couple of bonuses: two “not specifically authorized” releases, including 6,857 pounds of benzene, plus a bunch of other fun toxins.
Not to be outdone, the nearby ExxonMobil oil refinery decided to celebrate the new year in its own special way, releasing a bouquet of smelly agents including 3,010 lbs. of neurotoxicant carbonyl sulfide into our lovely Gulf air.
Now when Houston visitors ask you why the east side of the city has an odor reminiscent of cooked cabbage, you’ll be able to explain why.
Meanwhile, two environmental organizations are interrupting the normal course of business over in Deer Park with a pesky lawsuit:
“On average of more than once a week for at least the past five years, Shell has reported that it violated its own permit limits by spewing a wide range of harmful pollutants into the air around the Deer Park plant,” said Luke Metzger, executive director of Environment Texas.
Photo of Baytown sunrise: Bill Jacobus
Read more about: Air Quality, Baytown, Chemical Plants, Deer Park, Hazards, Pollution, Public Health, Refineries
