Andrea Earl's blog

Two weeks before the BP disaster in the Gulf of Mexico, BP’s Texas City refinery began spewing an enormous quantity of toxic chemicals into the Texas air. The release of toxins began on April 6 and lasted for 40 days unnoticed by BP. The refinery discharged an estimated half a million pounds of benzene, carbon monoxide, nitrogen oxides, and other toxins.

This appears to be one of the largest chemical releases to happen in the last decade. The amount of chemicals released greatly exceeds the limit that the state and federal government permits. It is unclear whether the pollutants have had any health impacts on any of the Texas City residents.

For months, the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and state agencies within Texas have been discussing how Texas issues permits that stipulate how companies should measure air pollution from refineries and other petrochemical plants. After these talks, the EPA has decided to take action. On Tuesday, the EPA announced that it has taken over the issuance of an operating permit for a Flint Hill Resources refinery in Corpus Christi. The EPA said it would do the same in dozens of other cases in which it believes the state's permits violate the Clean Air Act. These actions could potentially happen statewide by June 30.