Published on September 4, 2017
After Harvey Hurricane the grim face of Houston is devastating. The petrochemical industry has been leaking tons of pollutants, with communities living near plants damaged by the storm exposed to soaring levels of toxic fumes and potential water contamination.
Refineries and chemical plants have reported more than 2,700 tons, or 5.4m pounds, of extra air pollution due to direct damage from the hurricane as well as the preventive shutting down of facilities, which causes a spike in released toxins. Ozone levels in south west Houston were above the national standard, regarded as one of worst revent smogs in Texas. People have been warned over there due to poor air quality particulary elderly people and children.
According to an analysis by the Center for Biological Diversity, a cocktail of nearly 1m pounds of particularly harmful substances such as benzene, hexane, sulfur dioxide, butadiene and xylene have been emitted by more than 60 petroleum industry plants operated by ExxonMobil, Shell, Chevron and other businesses since the hurricane.
