SUBSCRIBE TO OUR FREE NEWSLETTER
Daily news & progressive opinion—funded by the people, not the corporations—delivered straight to your inbox.
5
#000000
#FFFFFF
5
#000000
#FFFFFF
A fire burns at the KMCO chemical plant in Crosby, Texas, on April 2. (Photo: screenshot, KHOU video coverage)
Third Houston Area Chemical Fire in Under Three Weeks Prompts Calls for Action From Progressives, Environmental Groups
"Repeat offenders to the environment, our health, and communities should be shut down, fined and prosecuted."
Apr 03, 2019
A third chemical fire in the Houston area in less than three weeks has Texans and environmentalists questioning the safety of energy corporations and calling for strict reforms.
On Tuesday morning, an explosion at the KMCO chemical plant in Crosby, roughly 25 miles northeast of Houston, killed one worker and began a fire at the plant. Two other workers were injured in the blast.
The KMCO fire follows two days-long blazes at the Intercontinental Terminals, Inc. (ITC), petrochemical facility in Deer Park, about 20 miles south of Crosby and 20 miles due east of Houston.
"Much like the ITC facility, the KMCO facility wasn't prepared for a fire or explosion, they called other refineries to supply them with foam to extinguish the blaze," Sema Hernandez, a social justice, human rights, and political activist based in the Houston area, told Common Dreams in an interview.
In a statement, progressive organization Public Citizen said that spotty regulation standards under the state of Texas and President Donald Trump along with the profit motive in the energy industry combined to create disaster.
"The Texas state government has a record of lax enforcement, and the Trump administration is rolling back necessary protections for workers and people living and working in the shadow of chemical plants," the group said.
The KMCO plant has a poor record of regulatory behavior, reported The Houston Chronicle.
The facility is currently not compliant with the federal Clean Water Act. KMCO was in violation of the Clean Water Act for seven of the last 12 quarters. It violated the Clean Air Act three times in the last 12 quarters. Environmental Protection Agency data shows the facility also violated the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act on Feb. 22, 2018. The RCRA regulates how facilities handle hazardous and non-hazardous solid waste.
In her interview with Common Dreams, Hernandez called for firm action against corporate polluters.
"Repeat offenders to the environment, our health and communities should be shut down, fined and prosecuted," said Hernandez. "We must learn and prevent disasters like these from happening again."
Public Citizen, in its statement, agreed.
"These sequential disasters highlight the dire need for more and better protections for these fence line communities," the group said. "Polluters should not get a free pass to pollute our communities and harm our neighbors."
Hernandez, who announced in September 2018 that she would challenge Republican Senator John Cornyn in 2020, added on social media that companies like KMCO should be held to account by their own standards.
"Since corporations are considered people, corporations who are repeat offenders to the environment, health and safety of workers and communities need to be shut down immediately," said Hernandez.
An Urgent Message From Our Co-Founder
Dear Common Dreams reader, It’s been nearly 30 years since I co-founded Common Dreams with my late wife, Lina Newhouser. We had the radical notion that journalism should serve the public good, not corporate profits. It was clear to us from the outset what it would take to build such a project. No paid advertisements. No corporate sponsors. No millionaire publisher telling us what to think or do. Many people said we wouldn't last a year, but we proved those doubters wrong. Together with a tremendous team of journalists and dedicated staff, we built an independent media outlet free from the constraints of profits and corporate control. Our mission has always been simple: To inform. To inspire. To ignite change for the common good. Building Common Dreams was not easy. Our survival was never guaranteed. When you take on the most powerful forces—Wall Street greed, fossil fuel industry destruction, Big Tech lobbyists, and uber-rich oligarchs who have spent billions upon billions rigging the economy and democracy in their favor—the only bulwark you have is supporters who believe in your work. But here’s the urgent message from me today. It's never been this bad out there. And it's never been this hard to keep us going. At the very moment Common Dreams is most needed, the threats we face are intensifying. We need your support now more than ever. We don't accept corporate advertising and never will. We don't have a paywall because we don't think people should be blocked from critical news based on their ability to pay. Everything we do is funded by the donations of readers like you. When everyone does the little they can afford, we are strong. But if that support retreats or dries up, so do we. Will you donate now to make sure Common Dreams not only survives but thrives? —Craig Brown, Co-founder |
Our work is licensed under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0). Feel free to republish and share widely.
A third chemical fire in the Houston area in less than three weeks has Texans and environmentalists questioning the safety of energy corporations and calling for strict reforms.
On Tuesday morning, an explosion at the KMCO chemical plant in Crosby, roughly 25 miles northeast of Houston, killed one worker and began a fire at the plant. Two other workers were injured in the blast.
The KMCO fire follows two days-long blazes at the Intercontinental Terminals, Inc. (ITC), petrochemical facility in Deer Park, about 20 miles south of Crosby and 20 miles due east of Houston.
"Much like the ITC facility, the KMCO facility wasn't prepared for a fire or explosion, they called other refineries to supply them with foam to extinguish the blaze," Sema Hernandez, a social justice, human rights, and political activist based in the Houston area, told Common Dreams in an interview.
In a statement, progressive organization Public Citizen said that spotty regulation standards under the state of Texas and President Donald Trump along with the profit motive in the energy industry combined to create disaster.
"The Texas state government has a record of lax enforcement, and the Trump administration is rolling back necessary protections for workers and people living and working in the shadow of chemical plants," the group said.
The KMCO plant has a poor record of regulatory behavior, reported The Houston Chronicle.
The facility is currently not compliant with the federal Clean Water Act. KMCO was in violation of the Clean Water Act for seven of the last 12 quarters. It violated the Clean Air Act three times in the last 12 quarters. Environmental Protection Agency data shows the facility also violated the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act on Feb. 22, 2018. The RCRA regulates how facilities handle hazardous and non-hazardous solid waste.
In her interview with Common Dreams, Hernandez called for firm action against corporate polluters.
"Repeat offenders to the environment, our health and communities should be shut down, fined and prosecuted," said Hernandez. "We must learn and prevent disasters like these from happening again."
Public Citizen, in its statement, agreed.
"These sequential disasters highlight the dire need for more and better protections for these fence line communities," the group said. "Polluters should not get a free pass to pollute our communities and harm our neighbors."
Hernandez, who announced in September 2018 that she would challenge Republican Senator John Cornyn in 2020, added on social media that companies like KMCO should be held to account by their own standards.
"Since corporations are considered people, corporations who are repeat offenders to the environment, health and safety of workers and communities need to be shut down immediately," said Hernandez.
A third chemical fire in the Houston area in less than three weeks has Texans and environmentalists questioning the safety of energy corporations and calling for strict reforms.
On Tuesday morning, an explosion at the KMCO chemical plant in Crosby, roughly 25 miles northeast of Houston, killed one worker and began a fire at the plant. Two other workers were injured in the blast.
The KMCO fire follows two days-long blazes at the Intercontinental Terminals, Inc. (ITC), petrochemical facility in Deer Park, about 20 miles south of Crosby and 20 miles due east of Houston.
"Much like the ITC facility, the KMCO facility wasn't prepared for a fire or explosion, they called other refineries to supply them with foam to extinguish the blaze," Sema Hernandez, a social justice, human rights, and political activist based in the Houston area, told Common Dreams in an interview.
In a statement, progressive organization Public Citizen said that spotty regulation standards under the state of Texas and President Donald Trump along with the profit motive in the energy industry combined to create disaster.
"The Texas state government has a record of lax enforcement, and the Trump administration is rolling back necessary protections for workers and people living and working in the shadow of chemical plants," the group said.
The KMCO plant has a poor record of regulatory behavior, reported The Houston Chronicle.
The facility is currently not compliant with the federal Clean Water Act. KMCO was in violation of the Clean Water Act for seven of the last 12 quarters. It violated the Clean Air Act three times in the last 12 quarters. Environmental Protection Agency data shows the facility also violated the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act on Feb. 22, 2018. The RCRA regulates how facilities handle hazardous and non-hazardous solid waste.
In her interview with Common Dreams, Hernandez called for firm action against corporate polluters.
"Repeat offenders to the environment, our health and communities should be shut down, fined and prosecuted," said Hernandez. "We must learn and prevent disasters like these from happening again."
Public Citizen, in its statement, agreed.
"These sequential disasters highlight the dire need for more and better protections for these fence line communities," the group said. "Polluters should not get a free pass to pollute our communities and harm our neighbors."
Hernandez, who announced in September 2018 that she would challenge Republican Senator John Cornyn in 2020, added on social media that companies like KMCO should be held to account by their own standards.
"Since corporations are considered people, corporations who are repeat offenders to the environment, health and safety of workers and communities need to be shut down immediately," said Hernandez.
We've had enough. The 1% own and operate the corporate media. They are doing everything they can to defend the status quo, squash dissent and protect the wealthy and the powerful. The Common Dreams media model is different. We cover the news that matters to the 99%. Our mission? To inform. To inspire. To ignite change for the common good. How? Nonprofit. Independent. Reader-supported. Free to read. Free to republish. Free to share. With no advertising. No paywalls. No selling of your data. Thousands of small donations fund our newsroom and allow us to continue publishing. Can you chip in? We can't do it without you. Thank you.