Deer Park residents who lived through 2019 ITC fire fight permit renewal hours before Shell blaze
That knowledge was top-of-mind for Sexton at Thursday's hearing.
In a statement to the Chronicle Thursday the company said it had undergone numerous inspections at the Deer Park plant by local, state and federal agencies."In each case, ITC has worked with the regulatory agencies during and after their visits, and followed up fully on any issues that the inspectors identified."
Garett Sansom, who leads a research team focused on the area, was not at the hearing, but he knows the issues well. He said residents face long-term physical impacts from living next to the Deer Park industry hub. Sansom's team with the Texas A&M Superfund Research Center, which focuses on community health around the Houston Ship Channel, has also found a measurable impact of acute hazards on residents' mental health.
Amy Dinn, who was at the hearing for Lone Star Legal Aid, also focused on the role of regulators. She said the Title V permit itself could have been drafted by TCEQ to include monitoring requirements that would ensure ITC was not surpassing its allowed limits, but that it did not. And she took issue with the agency's decision to call ITC a"satisfactory" permit holder when it had a documented history of permit violations, most of which did not result in fines.
"The ship channel is an industrial area," he said."As a citizen, you recognize these risks and the benefits that come along with it."
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