By Brandon C. Williams
The Post Newspaper Editor
Air quality is good in Texas City and La Marque, continuing a decade-long trend that has seen the area’s air become safer.
The information was the highlight of the latest Texas City-La Marque Community Advisory Council meeting, which was held on Thursday at the Texas City Showboat Pavilion.
AECOM Project Manager Jenna Granstra, who also serves as Air Quality Manager for AECOM, pointed out that the maximum benzene level from the area’s seven monitoring locations were well below the average 780 air monitoring comparison values (AMCV), which is used to monitor and evaluate the air in order to protect human health and welfare.
The numbers, which have been recorded since 1992, reached a peak in 2005, yet have seen a sharp decline that began in 2010 and have continued to remain below average since.
Granstra was followed by Dr. Tracie Phillips of the Texas Commision on Environmental Quality, who pointed out that the TCEQ’s most recent three-year look into the air quality of the Texas City-La Marque area showed the community has had no short term impact despite having a 76pbb that was slightly over the Environmental Protection Association’s baseline of 70pbb. Overall, the area has seen a steady decrease in potentially harmful air over the past 20 years.
Other news from the meeting:
*Marathon Petroleum Galveston Bay Refinery offered an in-depth report regarding its May 5 incident that resulted in an accidental release of hydrogen fluoride that resulted in a brief shelter in place for the Texas City area.
*Gulf Ammonia announced that progress on construction work on its Texas City area pipeline will begin in the next several weeks.
*Valero announced it will be hiring 21 new operators in the first quarter of 2022.
