COMMENT OF THE DAY: CLEAR LAKE CITY CLEANS UP NICELY “Is there a discount [for homes near chemical plants]? Hell yes! And it’s for lots of reasons: 1) real or perceived pollution, 2) real or perceived high crime, 3) low elevations, 4) higher property insurance rates, 5) fewer nearby white collar jobs, and 6) living there indicates to snobs that you’ve got a low social status. Most of the discount is unwarranted, but it’s a self-fulfilling prophecy. Look at Clear Lake City; parts of it are only about 1.5 miles from the nearest chemical plants. It was developed upon depleted oil fields and is adjacent to still-active fields. (It was developed by a subsidiary of Exxon!) It’s adjacent to an airport. It has a low elevation. But all that stuff is out of sight, out of mind, and so there’s no stigma.” [TheNiche, commenting on House Shopping in the Chemical Discount Zones: Finding Houston’s Less-Toxic Neighborhoods]
Sign up for the Newsletter
Public Health
HOUSE SHOPPING IN THE CHEMICAL DISCOUNT ZONES: FINDING HOUSTON’S LESS-TOXIC NEIGHBORHOODS “A commenter on your blog who says he works at a chemical plant recently wrote that a neighborhood 1 mile from a chemical plant ‘is never going to be an “OK” neighborhood.’ Is there a single citywide map that shows where all these plants are, so I can find a place to live accordingly? And how far do I have to be from a chemical plant to be ‘OK’? 5 miles? 20? I presume there’s no absolute answer. But there’s got to be a de facto ‘discount’ on homes in neighborhoods that are within certain radiuses of the toxic stuff, right? If so, how far do the discount zones extend? Could someone draw that map for me?” [Swamplot inbox]
HOUSTON’S DAY OF DESTRUCTION IS LESS THAN 2 MONTHS AWAY Grab your front-end loaders and join the fun! From Mayor Parker’s Wednesday State of the City address: “As part of my desire to make our neighborhoods safer, I am declaring Demolition Day in Houston. 200 abandoned, dangerous buildings and crack houses located across this city will come down on this day, targeted for May 22nd. This would not be possible without the help of the Houston Contractors Association, which is donating the demolition services for this effort. It’s a win-win-win: good for neighborhoods, good for public safety and good for public health.” [Mayor’s Office, via Swamplot commenter Matt]
COMMENT OF THE DAY: WE’RE FROM THE TEXAS MEDICAL CENTER AND WE’RE HERE TO HELP “Given all the refineries, industrial plants, chemical plants, railroads, stagnant swamps and cesspools, traffic pollution, and the like that plague this hellhole of a town, it is a freaking wonder that Houston doesn’t lead the nation in cancer cases.” [Random Poster, commenting on Today’s Odor in Baytown Is Brought to You by ExxonMobil]
What happens when an investor who owns 200 out of 500 units in a north Houston condo complex defaults on his loan, leaving many of his properties vacant? Reporter Allison Triarsi visits Pine Village North, just south of Hamill Rd., west east of the Eastex Fwy.:
“It’s just an open house for gang members to come. Anybody can come,” said homeowner Ann Loyd.
Walk inside any one of the open units and you could find anything from gang graffiti and dead roaches, to the bones of animals.
“I don’t know if what I’m standing in [is] some kind of mice droppings or rat droppings,” said Loyd, while escorting 11 News through a vacant unit.
In addition to debris, there were pink pills on a counter, and clothing and blankets on the floor where people have either left them behind or kept them there in case they needed a free place to sleep.
WHAT ABOUT THE FLARES? “An estimated 1,600 tons of smog-forming nitrogen oxides and volatile organic compounds are released in the Houston region each day. They mix with sunlight to form ozone, a colorless gas that can cause lung damage. Formaldehyde and other radical precursors matter because, without them, the volatile organic compounds emitted by cars, industry, paints and other consumer products would form much less ozone, [the Houston Advanced Research Center’s Jay] Olaguer said. Industrial flares burn off pressurized gases but also can shoot out massive amounts of noxious emissions. The Houston area has about 400 flare stacks, and they are among the largest and least- understood sources of pollution in the region, researchers said. A recent University of North Carolina study found that formaldehyde from flares may increase Houston’s ozone by as much as 30 parts per billion. In tandem with the pollution that blows into the region from elsewhere, that might be enough to keep Houston from meeting the new federal ozone limit of 75 parts per billion, scientists said. The state’s current plan for reducing Houston’s smog doesn’t consider formaldehyde and other precursors. ‘If there is a problem with flares, it upends the entire regulatory strategy,’ said Harvey Jeffries, an atmospheric chemist who conducted the UNC study.” [Houston Chronicle, via Off the Kuff]
REGULAR APARTMENT INSPECTIONS Apartment buildings in Houston with more than 2 units would need to submit to regular city inspections to ensure they meet minimum habitability standards — under a bill expected to get final approval today from the Texas House: “Under [State Rep. Dwayne] Bohac’s bill [HB 1819], the city would get broad authority to set up its own inspections regime. One of the mayor’s closest policy aides, Andy Icken, is already working with city lawyers to draft an ordinance for City Council consideration this year. ‘Having a clear, established state law and city ordinance would clearly communicate to all the stakeholders what our expectations are,’ said Icken, a deputy director with the city’s Public Works and Engineering Department. The bill, which only applies to Houston, requires the city to maintain standards for sturdy and sealed walls, floors, windows and ceilings. It also requires complexes to maintain such basics as hot water, working toilets and heating systems. There’s also a provision requiring each unit and building in a complex to have lighted signs so that emergency personnel can locate them at night. Owners who don’t comply would face civil and criminal penalties.” [Houston Chronicle; more details (PDF)]
HOUSTON BAYOUS: NOW FEATURING RAW SEWAGE! “Ever since the hurricane, a number of the city’s waste water treatment plants went without power. As a result, the city was forced to actually dump raw sewage straight into the bayous. First of all, it smells awful. There have also been some oil slicks along the waterways. And you can’t miss the dead fish.” [abc13]
A note from the City of Taylor Lake Village:
Taylor Lake is closed to recreation – swimming, boating, fishing, and water skiing. The Gulf Coast Waste Disposal Authority industrial wastewater treatment plant on Port Road was inundated during the storm and its ponds of untreated industrial and sanitary waste overflowed into Taylor Lake. The Lake may be contaminated with industrial pollutants (volatile organic and other compounds) and bacteriological contaminants. Residents should avoid all contact with Taylor Lake water until further notice.
Any other area industrial pollutants gone AWOL after Ike? Where did they end up?
- Hurricane Ike Update [Taylor Lake Village]
Photo of house and damage on Taylor Lake: Flickr user Linda Railsback
City officials posted signs at the Gables of Inwood Apartments near Antoine Forest yesterday notifying residents that they need to vacate the property by Monday. The owner of the 165-unit complex, Collins Ofoegbu of El Sobrante, California, has received notices of more than 240 violations from city inspectors since purchasing the property in 2006.
Some received the news from orange “notice to vacate” signs affixed to their doors. The signs also warned residents that power would be disconnected Monday.
“I need, like, two or three months,” said an agitated Jolanda Hernandez, who waved a recent rent receipt while complaining in Spanish. “I need time so I can move out of here.”
Matt Stiles’s report in the Chronicle indicates there are also problems at a closer-in property with a much larger group of owners: the Park Memorial Condominiums near the corner of Memorial and Detering. Stiles says city inspectors planned to post notices at the condominiums at 5292 Memorial warning residents that the parking garage is unsafe and “may experience catastrophic failure at any time.”
After the jump: More highlights from reporter Matt Stiles’s personal collection of dangerous-apartment photos!
[youtube:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l6btY7WqNBM 400 330]
Frustrated that his occasional reports on area petrochemical-plant emissions events haven’t received more attention, Banjo Jones of the Brazosport News (aka former Chronicle reporter Steve Olafson) resorts to video. His first feature: the odorous results of a power outage this past Sunday at the Chevron Phillips chemical plant in Old Ocean. That’s in Brazoria County, about an hour’s drive southwest of Houston.
- Caught on videotape !! [Brazosport News]
- Old Ocean, Tex., the hellhole they call home [YouTube]
Finding it hard to stay healthy in Houston? Do you find yourself wheezing and coughing . . . maybe because you’re uh, so out of shape? Blogger and chemical-plant worker Baytown Bert has come up with a solution: Industrial Trekking.
Industrial Trekking (IndyTrek) is a planned path consisting of climbing/walking obstacles or evolutions inside a refinery, chemical plant, factory, water treatment plant or even a large office building whereby a person can use stairs and ladders to promote fitness. An IndyTrek typically consists of 8-10 evolutions, usually requiring an hour to complete.
What a great way to get out, lose some weight, and get some fresh air, too! But how can anyone find the time?
I do it on the clock, as I can do it while strolling through the Chemical Plant I work in, but it can be done anywhere stairs are and in time-frame sections, throughout the day until all the evolutions are completed. It can be incorporated into your daily schedule (while on the clock or on break).
After the jump: A Baytown Bert photo shows an IndyTrekker in action!
[youtube:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iJm4DykNPOg 400 330]
If only Marvin Zindler had lived to see this!
Houston’s longtime consumer reporter is no longer around to deliver his stirring “Slime in the Ice Machine!” reports on TV, but Harris County Public Health & Environmental Services is now allowing online access to its database of inspection reports for retail food establishments.
Though it’s not nearly as user-friendly as, say, being able to see letter grades in restaurant front windows, the ability to search through reports online is a big step forward. And hey, now that they’re available, maybe someone can turn distributing inspection report cards to county restaurants into a business.
If you’re on the prowl for ice-machine violations in the new database, maybe to put into your own Zindler-style restaurant-inspection broadcasts on YouTube, look for “Slime on soda nozzles, soda gun & holster, ice machine, yogurt machines” under inspection item 25, “Food Contact Surfaces of Equipment and Utensils Cleaned, Sanitized/Good Repair.”
- Online Food Inspections [HCPHES]
- HCPHES Announces Two Food Establishment Initiatives [HCPHES]
- County restaurant inspection reports now online [KHOU]
- Marvin Zindler’s last report [YouTube]
- Post the scores [Barfblog]
- CleanScores tells you if your favorite restaurant is clean [VentureBeat]
- CleanScores (LA and SF only)
- Environmental Public Health Division Inspection Information [HCPHES]
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.
- ExxonMobil emits thousands of lbs. of benzene and other nastiness to mark new year in East Harris County, TX [Brazosport News]
- Air Emission Event Report for Tracking Number 101998 [TNRCC]
- Air Emission Event Report for Tracking Number 102061 [TNRCC]
- Environmental groups file suit against Shell Oil [Houston Business Journal]
- Groups sue over refinery pollution [Galveston County Daily News]
Photo of Baytown sunrise: Bill Jacobus
Harris County Mosquito Control sends out the planes to battle the West Nile virus and sprinkle northern Houston with insecticide.