By David Taylor
Managing Editor
A devastating fire at the Intercontinental Terminals Company, LLC (ITC) in Deer Park on Sunday, March 17, 2019, became the catalyst for an Austin newspaper to investigate the lingering effects on the community including Galena Park. On Saturday August 10th, they returned to Galena Park, to host an informational event to arm residents with knowledge on how to handle a repeat event. The meeting was jointly hosted by the Air Alliance Houston, Galena Park Library, and the Texas Tribune.
The Deer Park fire began in Tank 80-8, an 80,000 barrel aboveground atmospheric storage tank that held a blend of naphtha and butane product, a highly flammable liquid, according to the U. S. Chemical Safety and Hazard Investigation Board investigation report released on July 6, 2023.
The report said ITC was unable to isolate or stop the release and the fire intensified and spread to the other 14 tanks located in the same area burning for three days until it was extinguished on Wednesday, March 20, 2019. The effects of the fire and breach of the containment wall caused the shutdown of a seven-mile stretch of the Houston Ship Channel, several waterfront parks in Harris County and the City of LaPorte, and a plume of smoke forcing several shelter-in-place orders because of benzene-related air quality concerns.
Area school districts including Deer Park, La Porte, Pasadena, Channelview, Galena Park, and Sheldon cancelled classes and outdoor activities for part of the week out of an abundance of caution.
Damages from the fire exceeded $150 million, according to USCSHIB.
The Texas Tribune followed up the fire with investigative reporting by Alejandra Martinez.
“Today is for your questions and to be able to get information that you, your family, and your community needs,” said Matt Ewalt, director of events and live journalism for The Texas Tribune.
The meeting featured Juan Flores, Air Alliance Houston’s community air monitoring program manager; Dr. Inyang Uwak, research and policy director at the environmental nonprofit Air Alliance Houston; Natalie Johnson, environmental toxicologist at the Texas A&M University School of Public Health; Erandi Treviño, coalition organizer for the environmental nonprofit Healthy Port Communities Coalition; and Yvette Arellano, founder of Fenceline Watch, an environmental watchdog organization.
“Today’s community engagement is an extension of the journalism that our newsroom has done in the area, and it’s wanting to provide a space so that residents can ask vulnerable questions and access information related to air quality in the area, whether it’s tools to be able to monitor air quality, to how to make their voices heard and how to protect themselves from exposure,” Ewalt said.
Martinez said this was a follow-up on two years of reporting beginning with an investigation that the Texas Tribune did in partnership with Public Health Watch looking at post air pollution after the ITC fire.
“Many of you were probably here and have lived in the Houston area remember the big black smoke plume that took over the skyline after the fire,” she said.
Martinez said their investigation found that weeks after the fire was extinguished, there were still alarming levels of benzene in the air.
They have since done a collaborative story with freelancer Wendy Selena Perez looking at the state’s air quality monitoring system and the inadequacies that come with it.
Flores, a Galena Park resident, knows the devastating effects of the air we breathe. He was diagnosed with a precursor for cancer at a young age but continues to live in Galena Park despite the risk.
“This is my neighborhood where I grew up. I want to make it better,” he said. “One day I might have to move, but while I’m here, I want to make the best of it and let people know what’s going on because a lot of them don’t know and I’m not the only one suffering with this out here.”
Flores said education was the key and he wants to do that as much as possible.
He became the Community Air Monitor Program Manager for Air Alliance Houston and led the session on air monitoring.
“I have multiple air monitors at my home now and have put up a little over 60 air monitors across Houston the last few years,” he said. The monitors are set up in homes and businesses giving access to anyone the data showing what’s going on in their community.
Flores explained how to implement the Community Air Monitoring Program (CAMP) in his sessions.
Martinez said the sessions and conversations held at the Galena Park Library were not about politicians, lawmakers, or leaders talking at residents, but rather more intimate conversations in a smaller setting that allowed concerns and vulnerabilities.