The "Refinery Row" districts of Corpus Christi, Texas are primarily low income,
Afro-American and Hispanic communities located uncomfortably close to a large
collection of industrial companies. The problem is the air and ground pollution
caused by these industries and the apparent disregard by both the polluters and
the city and state agencies of federal laws designed to protect affected citizens.
Incidents such as ground well water contamination, lead contamination of soil,
accidents and explosions at plants, various toxic clouds resulting in nausea of
the residents on several occasions have provoked little or no actions by the TNRCC
and the city. Complaints phoned in by the citizens are ignored and a siege mentality
has set in on both sides.
The population of Refinery Row has organized under the auspices of the AGIT,
PACE and LULAC in order to change their living conditions. Since the city of
Corpus Christi and the TNRCC have chose to ignore complaints of environmental
contamination, the grass roots organizations with the help of the Sierra Club
have filed a formal complaint with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.
This occurred after city hall refused to hold special town meetings on the subject,
and rebuffed citizens when they brought up the topic while attending council
meetings.
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Rev. Roy Malveaux - State Director - People Against
Contaminated Environments (PACE)
As director of this grassroots movement, the reverend is concerned for the health
of the children of these communities and is upset about the lack of action by
the city of Corpus Christi and the TNRCC. He favors community relocation.
Gilbert Jasso - Civil Rights Coordinator - American
GI Forum of Texas (AGIT)
Jasso is a member of an organization founded to help Hispanic veterans receive
their legitimate benefits. This movement has recently grown into a larger anti-discrimination
group. He blames the city and the TNRCC for not enforcing environmental laws.
Jasso further claims that cancers and other illnesses in the community have been
the result of this lack of enforcement.
Grover Hankins - Attorney, Professor of Law - Texas
Southern University
Hankins is the former Deputy General Counsel in U.S. Health and Human Services
Dept. and General Counsel of the NAACP. He sees these neighborhoods as being in
a critical position due to the inundation of chemicals. He further points to the
fact that children there have the highest blood lead levels in Texas.
Neil Carman - Clean Air Director - Austin Sierra Club
Carman is the co-architect of the E.P.A. complaint and a former Texas Air Control
Board investigator. In the paper he documents zoning and tax abatement rulings
that discriminate against people of color. His statistics show how badly the area
is bearing the burden of the industrial waste.
Barry R. McBee - Chairman - Texas Natural Resource Conservation
Commission
His organization believes that they have been very active in enforcing environmental
laws in Corpus Christi and expects the E.P.A. will not find any discrimination
in this case.
Mayor Mary Rhodes - City of Corpus Christi
The city feels that they have enforced the laws fairly and thinks that they have
mediated well between the interests of the community and the industries. They
point to the fact that Amerada Hess Co. lost itŐs industrial district contract
when it failed to meet city pollution control standards.
Daniel J. Rondeau - Director, Office of Civil Rights
- U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
Rondeau claims the complaint will take time to investigate and the city and the
TNRCC will need to respond to all allegations. The E.P.A. prefers to settle the
issue by bringing the parties together to compromise and avoid sanctions such
as losing federal assistance money. E.P.A. representatives were recently taken
on a tour of the area by Grover Hankins and Neil Carman for a first hand look.
League of Latin American Citizens (LULAC)
The League was formed in 1929 to in response to discrimination of Hispanics who
were assimilated after the Mexican war in the United States. They were part of
the original complaint to the E.P.A. and make up a significant proportion of the
residents of "Refinery Row".
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1990 Census tracts of communities nearest to the refineries
| Tract 4 |
% of total population |
Afro-American |
56.2 |
| Hispanic |
39.6 |
Caucasian |
3.4 |
| Tract 5 |
% of total population |
| Afro-American |
52.3 |
| Hispanic |
43.5 |
| Caucasian |
3.6 |
| Tract 6 |
% of total population |
| Afro-American |
7.8 |
| Hispanic |
71.4 |
| Caucasian |
19.8 |
| Tract 7 |
% of total population |
| Afro-American |
2.1 |
| Hispanic |
52.4 |
| Caucasian |
44.5 |
| Tract 11 |
% of total population |
| Afro-American |
4.3 |
| Hispanic |
89.3 |
| Caucasian |
5.4 |
| Corpus Christi-Refinery Row |
Distance from refineries (in miles) |
% of population below the poverty line |
| Tract 4 |
0-0.5 |
70.3 |
| Tract 5 |
0-0.2 |
42.9 |
| Tract 6 |
0-1.9 |
32 |
| Tract 7 |
0-0.4 |
23.6 |
| Tract 11 |
0.35-1.0 |
73.6 |
| Corpus Christi-Refinery Row |
% of adults with high school diploma |
| Tract 4 |
64.1 |
| Tract 5 |
54.3 |
| Tract 6 |
48.2 |
| Tract 7 |
44.2 |
| Tract 11 |
80.1 |
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Air pollution from industry is evidenced by the following TRI (Toxic Release
Inventory) numbers:
| Company |
Zip Codes |
% Minority |
Total Toxic Releases |
Toxic Air Releases (% of County Total) |
| Celanese Engineering |
78343 |
56 |
4,416,429 |
1,904,937 (43%) |
| American Chrome |
78407 |
80 |
1,503,110 |
184,660 (12%) |
| Coastal Refining & Mkg. |
78408 |
77 |
1,311,982 |
536,382 (41%) |
| OXY Petrochemicals Co. |
78410 |
23 |
1,070,450 |
1,044,250 (98%) |
| Koch Refining |
78410 |
23 |
481,302 |
451,469 (94%) |
| CITGO Refining |
78408 |
77 |
478,095 |
165,085 (35%) |
| Southwestern Refining |
78407 |
80 |
296,686 |
285,336 (96%) |
| Valero Refining |
78408 |
77 |
132,995 |
49,368 (37%) |
| CITGO Refining |
78409 |
52 |
83,487 |
7,831 (9%) |
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The help of Neil Carman of the Sierra Club and Attorney Grover Hankins of Texas
Southern University was crucial on putting together a cohesive statistical picture
of the environmental conditions in such a way which could espouse the proper federal
and state environmental laws and how they are being broken.
In their complaint the Carman and Hankins point out health studies showing
a cancer mortality rate in the industrial census tracts as being significantly
higher than the state average. Studies were sited which implicate chemicals
such as the ones used in Corpus Christi industries of causing respiratory ailments
such as Asthma which commonly inflict the many young and old residents of the
area. A particularly telling episode described in the complaint involves the
denial of a rezoning for a Go-Cart track in a majority white area of Corpus
Christi because of citizens complaints of the noise and air pollution it would
cause. In contrast to this was a request by "Refinery Row" citizens
to stop the rezoning of a portion of their neighborhood from light-industrial
to heavy-industrial which was denied by the city in spite of their vigorous
protests.
In reply, the city, state and industrial interests have attempted to create
a buffer between the residents and the refineries by crafting a bill in the
Texas State Senate that would allow any gasoline or oil contaminated residential
property next to the refineries to be condemned by eminent domain and purchased
at greatly reduced price by the Port Authority of Corpus Christi. The Port Authority,
according to SB 1676, would have zero liability as a potentially responsible
party in remediation of all residential contaminated property seized and under
its jurisdiction. Refineries would still have been responsible for remediation
of contaminated properties but without any liability to the residents who had
lived on the home sites with ground water contamination. The bill was successfully
killed in the Texas House after PACE sent a letter to their state senator advising
him that they believed the pending legislation was illegal and may result in
a civil rights lawsuit under title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.
That the community only learned of the legislation through the news media
after it had already passed the Senate clearly shows that the city of Corpus
Christi was not interested in citizen input into resolving the situation. The
city was aware that the residents would accept the creation of a buffer zone
only through a buyout of their homes at fair market value, and without losing
their rights to sue over the health problems caused by the environmental contamination.
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The strategy used by the community is the most logical one available to them.
When up against a greater power, seeking help from a power greater than they makes
the most sense. The biggest weakness of this strategy is that the federal government,
despite their desire to help citizens in need, will rarely come to the rescue
of its most unfortunate, namely, the residents of refinery row. This is true especially
when it will result in great loss of revenue for its most fortunate, namely, the
industries. The legal precedence that could be set by this case would be felt
all across the country and would spur hundreds of similar complaints and lawsuits.
The possibility does exist that the federal government will force an out of
court settlement that accepts some of the remedies suggested by the citizens
complaint. These remedies would address more active participation of monitoring
the pollution by the TNRCC, health study requests, and the inclusion of the
community in drafting proper emergency procedures in case of industrial accidents.
If this is all that is expected of the E.P.A. then I believe the residents may
achieve their goal. However, the vagueness of the remedies, such as "aggressive
enforcement" of air and water pollution violations and "better"
health monitoring may give the government the opportunity to do little and claim
much.
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To repeat, the remedies sought by the complainants are modest and quite doable.
The suggestion raised by both the industries and the residents is the creation
of a buffer zone. However, if the industries were serious about buying out the
neighborhoods at fair market value, this process would have already been initiated.
Whatever becomes of this complaint to the E.P.A. the real battle will be when
civil rights groups take to the courts to try to force the companies to take responsibility
for cleaning up the communities and compensating the plaintiffs. The Executive
Order No. 12898 signed by President Clinton along with Title VI of the Civil Rights
Act of 1964 gives residents a legal standing to sue. Therefore, if studies can
unquestionably incriminate the industries pollution with the failing health of
nearby citizens, then a lot of money in punitive damages could be up for grabs.
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More studies on the affects of air and ground pollution to community residents
need to be done. The E.P.A., if so inclined, could take a step in the right direction
and authorize these studies. When studies show a direct link between sicknesses
such as cancer and these chemicals, the outcry for something to be done will not
only be heard from the minority communities, but also from affected white communities.
Only by linking the fate of others who are more influential to the conditions
suffered by the minorities will prompt action which will benefit all of mankind.
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Title VI, Civil Rights Act of 1964 http://www.os.dhhs.gov/progorg/ocr/oasamt6.html
Executive Order No. 12898 http://www.epa.gov/docs/oejpubs/execordr.txt.html
I would like to pay credit to NEIL CARMAN of the Sierra Club for providing me
with much of the information used in this web page.
Local Contact: Alison C. Horton, Director Mackinac
Chapter Sierra Club 300 N. Washington Sq., Suite 411, Lansing, MI. 48933
Phone: (517) 484-2372 Fax: (517) 484-3108
Some additional links:
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