Houston Mayor Asks For City's Largest Refinery To Defend Emissions Before Seeking State Permit

Houston, TX (AHN) - Houston Mayor Bill White asked the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality on Monday to subject Lyondell Chemical Company's refinery to a public hearing on its discharge of cancer-causing benzene, before granting the city's largest refinery another permit from the state of Texas.

The TCEQ is the agency responsible for monitoring Texas' air quality.

Lyondell's refinery along the Houston Ship Channel has been identified as one of the country's largest dischargers of benzene. It has the highest emission of the deadly substance per barrel of products compared to all refineries across the United States.

Lyondell, ironically, was one of 10 large polluters which helped design then Gov. George Bush's 1997 Anti-Pollution Program. According to a report by the Galveston-Houston Association for Smog Prevention, Lyondell grandfathered 8,069 tons of toxic emissions released into the air.

White told the Houston Chronicle, "If the company believes that it's just fine to put tons and tons of benzene in the air... then we would like to hear what scientific evidence they have that benzene is good for you."

The mayor said he hopes that the hearing would result in the establishment of a benchmark for benzene emission in Texas, which does not have one. The only pollution guideline the state has is for air toxin discharge based on the risk it would lead to one additional cancer case per 100,000 population.

If Lyondell manages to secure a new permit, it would allow the refinery to operate for 10 more years.

David Harpole, spokesman of Lyondell, agreed the permitting process is the proper forum for the city to raise its concerns over pollution levels. Harpole insisted that the applications being used by the refinery results in a 23 percent cut in overall emission and 41 percent reduction in benzene discharges.