TAKEAWAYS FROM THURSDAY’S Community Advisory Meeting, held at the Texas City Showboat. It was the first meeting of the year for CAC.
*Both BP and Marathon are hiring, with Marathon expecting to increase its current number of 5,500 employees to 8,000 by the end of this April.
*College of the Mainland is making progress on construction of their STEM building and Administration/Student Services building. COM President Dr. Warren Nichols announced that both buildings will be completed by the end of the year. Nichols also announced that student enrollment has seen an increase of 7% over the past two years.
*Co-guest speaker Michael Walter, Public Relations for Valero, presented the company’s “Stewardship and Responsibility Report.” In it, Walter pointed out Valero’s presence in six countries over three continents. Valero will also open its first two branded stations in Mexico this week.
Valero is experiencing record-low flaring events. It is also seen a 68% reduction in refining environmental incidents since 2007 and a 91% drop in ethanol environmental incidents since 2010. Greenhouse gas emissions are down 80% versus traditional diesel.
*Co-guest speaker Brandon Wade, General Manager and CEO of Gulf Coast Water Authority, spoke of the challenges that comes with keeping the area supplied with water. One of the ways the GCWA plans to achieve that goal will come with the opening of the Joseph A. Wilhelm Industrial Pump Station, which will come on line later this year. The new IPS will help see an increase of 60 million gallons per day to as much as 95 million gallons per day.
*The subject of desalination is one that the GCWA will approach in the near future, Wade added.
The next CAC meeting will be held on March 26 at the Nessler’s Captain Room beginning at 5:00pm. Guest speakers have yet to be announced.
