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CHANNELVIEW — Living in an industry town, George Galindo is hardened to the sound of semi-trailers lumbering through his neighborhood. He’s accustomed to the sight of steel smokestacks and aluminum tank farms punctuating his community’s streets.
What keeps 29-year-old Galindo up at night isn’t the big chemical plants or oil refineries.
What worries him most is a facility that’s a fraction of their size — a small barge-cleaning and petrochemical-blending plant called K-Solv that’s just a block from his house.
“The big industrial companies are concerning, but they’re not at my front door,” he said.
A recent Public Health Watch investigation found that the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality, or TCEQ, knew in 2005 that K-Solv was releasing large amounts of benzene, a chemical linked to leukemia, into the air. But instead of cracking down on the facility, the TCEQ has allowed K-Solv to expand four times, increasing the amount of volatile organic compounds, a class of chemicals that includes benzene, it can legally emit. And in 2021 the TCEQ relocated the air monitor closest to K-Solv to the outskirts of Channelview, where it’s less likely to capture the facility’s emissions.
Even so, the monitor shows that pollution levels are still high.
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s own data shows that Channelview residents are breathing some of the highest levels of toxic industrial pollution in the country. But the nation’s top clean air regulator hasn’t intervened.
“The sad fact is, EPA is going after big fish,” said Bob Sidner, who has developed over 100 federal and state air pollution permits at Eastern Research Group, an environmental consulting firm that works with the EPA. “They don’t have the bandwidth or the personnel to pursue a minor facility.”
The EPA’s inaction can be traced to the two-tiered system the agency created decades ago, when it was figuring out how to enforce the 1970 Clean Air Act. It decided that facilities that released more than 25 tons of toxic chemicals per year would be considered major sources of pollution and held to strict federal regulations that could be enforced by the EPA. Facilities that released fewer than 25 tons — smaller plants like K-Solv – would have far less federal oversight and be policed primarily by states, who were tasked with carrying out federal priorities.
K-Solv did not respond to a request for comment.
The large facilities near George Galindo’s house must obtain federal operating permits and are held to “maximum achievable” control standards. That means they have to use the best available equipment and operational standards to limit their pollution. They also have to report their emissions every six months and sign documentation every year, pledging that their reporting is accurate.
Federal regulations for smaller polluters like K-Solv are far less specific. Most are allowed to use “generally available” equipment and operating standards, not the best that’s available.
Some don’t have to report their emissions as frequently as large facilities, or certify that they are accurate.
Small facilities also are left out of the national clean air compliance monitoring strategy, the EPA’s statement of policy priorities under the Clean Air Act. The strategy sets inspection and evaluation standards for major facilities and recommends that regulators check the accuracy of the large facilities’ emissions monitoring at least every two or three years. The EPA doesn’t set equivalent standards for minor sources like K-Solv.
States that can’t or don’t want to follow the federal monitoring strategy can ask the EPA to approve an alternative plan, as Texas has done. But the Texas plan doesn’t mention minor polluters, either.
According to the TCEQ, the EPA hasn’t updated the Texas compliance monitoring strategy since 2012.
Neil Carman, a former TCEQ air investigator who is now the clean air director for Sierra Club’s Lone Star Chapter, said the EPA’s inaction is “a huge problem” for people who live near minor polluters. That’s particularly true in Texas, he said, which is considered one of the most industry-friendly states in the country.
The heavily industrialized community of Channelview has eight facilities that are considered “minor” or “area” polluters, including K-Solv. Each year, combined, they can legally release 62 tons of volatile organic compounds into the unincorporated Houston suburb with little federal oversight.
“Minor sources are poorly regulated. That’s what they are,” Carman said. “The EPA just tells the states, ‘Well, with these minor sources, you do what you want.’”
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The EPA has another opportunity to regulate minor polluters: Clean air law requires the agency to review its toxic pollution standards for various categories of industries – minor as well as major – every eight years. K-Solv, for instance, falls into the category of bulk gasoline distribution terminals and pipeline facilities, a regulatory class that includes roughly 9,000 minor facilities nationwide.
But a 2022 report from the EPA’s Office of Inspector General said the agency lags far behind in these reviews, especially when it comes to smaller polluters. The report found that the agency had missed deadlines for 81% of small polluters.
“The EPA lacks a strategy to meet the statutory deadlines,” the inspector general report said.
The class of facilities that includes K-Solv, for instance, hadn’t been reviewed in 14 years when the report was released.
According to the EPA, the delays are due to many factors, including lack of staff, resources and the fact that smaller polluters haven’t been prioritized.
The agency plans to catch up over the next eight years, an EPA spokesperson told Public Health Watch in a written statement.
This month, the EPA finally released new standards for bulk gasoline terminals and pipeline facilities, the class of industry that includes K-Solv. The new standards, which take effect in three years, tightened some regulations for both major and minor polluters in this category and narrowed the gap between them. But small polluters will still be allowed to release three times more emissions than larger facilities for each liter of gasoline they load. And while major polluters must test for equipment leaks twice a year, small polluters have to test only once a year.
Earthjustice and about two dozen other advocacy groups had urged the EPA to do more. They wanted small bulk gasoline facilities like K-Solv to be required to meet “maximum achievable” standards, not just “generally available” ones.
“Frontline communities should no longer be forced to bear the high cost of industry’s toxic emissions,” the groups said in a letter to the EPA. “The agency’s cramped view of ‘cost-effectiveness’ is out of sync with the [Clean Air] Act.”
But the new standards don’t go that far.
Jim Pew, an attorney with Earthjustice, believes the agency should exercise more oversight of small polluters under the Clean Air Act, which he calls the “Swiss army knife” of laws.
“Just getting the EPA to use the authority it has had all along would yield huge benefits,” he said.
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The EPA’s regulatory system leaves Channelview residents with few options to deal with emissions from small facilities. They can organize and file complaints with the EPA, the TCEQ and Harris County Pollution Control. If they make enough noise and persist long enough, they might eventually capture the attention of lawmakers or regulators. They can also appeal to nonprofits, who sometimes file lawsuits on behalf of environmental justice communities.
But like many Channelview residents, Galindo doesn’t have much time to mobilize his community. He runs his own business, building custom barbecue grills in his backyard. He and his wife are also raising their five-year-old son and looking after Galindo’s younger brother and sister, who live with them.
Galindo once worked as a scaffold builder on major industrial sites, and he respects the economic benefits that industry gives his home state. But he said his family deserves cleaner air.
His wife gets debilitating headaches from the sharp smell of chemicals several times a week. Their son asks “What’s that smell?” when he tries to play outdoors. Galindo worries about the long hours he spends outside everyday, working on his business.
He doesn’t want to leave Channelview, but he’s beginning to feel he has no choice. He’s planning to move in the next five years.
“I’m probably breathing something in that’s going to affect me for the long run,” Galindo said. “I don’t want that for my son.”
Public Health Watch is a nonprofit investigative news organization based in Austin.