Earth Equity News

Are Houston's Petrochemicals Safe from Hurricanes? By Cain Burdeau, AP, October 6, 2008. "When Hurricane Ike was on its trajectory for the petrochemical industry clustered here, the storm had the makings of an environmental nightmare unlike anything in U.S. history. Of course, that didn't happen. Ike's storm surge was less severe than feared and the floodwalls, levees and bulkheads built around the region's heavy industry generally held. Some hazardous material spilled, but nothing to cause the widespread environmental damage some feared. But many of the plants and refineries are protected by a 1960s-era, 15-foot-high levee system built by the Army Corps of Engineers that is strikingly similar to the one around New Orleans that failed catastrophically during Katrina... For Tom Smith, an environmental advocate with Public Citizen in Austin, Texas is in denial. 'The Houston-Galveston-Brazoria County area has the highest concentration of toxins in the United States on a per-square-mile basis,' he said. 'There has not been a great deal of thought to the vast volume of toxins that might be released in a substantial hurricane and what that might do to the bays, estuaries and the entire Gulf."