Lost among all the odors of the Houston Ship Channel, benzene leaks from pipelines have been quietly adding to the toxic mix of nearby residential neighborhoods.
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Anyone for tennis? The Valero refinery looms over Hartman Park, located in Manchester, one of Houston’s oldest communities. -
Scientist Jay Olaguer discovered benzene leaks coming from pipelines below residential neighborhoods. -
Toxic emissions have been tied to the petrochemical complex of refineries and chemical plants that sprang up along the Houston Ship Channel after it opened in 1914. -
Trains have also been linked to benzene and other toxic air emissions. -
Adrian Shelley says getting the funding to study benzene emissions is difficult because of the politics behind the issue. -
The City of Houston has its own air quality monitors at a site near Galena Park. -
These two sisters, who bring their daughters to Hartman Park, say they have never heard about air pollution in the neighborhood. -
Somehow, people actually need to be warned not to go fishing in the Houston Ship Channel next to the Pasadena Refinery. -
A flare is still burning at a Ballard Exploration Company oil well on the edge of the Houston Ship Channel. -
Shell Deer Park’s oil storage tanks feature Texas history murals. Maybe they think the tanks will be less noticeable this way? -
Refineries surround and dwarf the San Jacinto Monument. -
The man on top of the high-pressure refinery storage tank illustrates the size of these massive tanks. -
Pipelines that feed into the area refineries are also belching large, unpredictable amounts of benzene in the fence-line communities. -
As the refinery and chemicals plants on the edge of Manchester grew they expanded into every available space on the edge of the neighborhood. -
Manchester houses are right up next to the works of chemical plants and refineries in the area. -
Houston has had problems with air quality since the 1950s and part of the air pollution has come from the petrochemical industry. -
The “toxic tours” roll through Manchester and other fence-line communities about once a month and people always take pictures of the Valero refinery from Manchester’s Hartman Park. -
Pat Gonzales grew up near Manchester, but she didn’t realize the community was downwind of a large refinery until she moved there in the 1990s.
