Flooding and Industrial Pollutants in Galena Park

FUNDER: ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY, SCIENCE TO ACHIEVE RESULTS GRANT PROGRAM (STAR)

COURSES: FALL 2021: COMMUNICATION IN PLANNING (PLAN 661)

FACULTY: WEIHSUEH A. CHIU (VETERINARY INTEGRATIVE BIOSCIENCES), DEIDRA D.DAVIS, JAMES KAIHATU (CIVIL & ENVIRONMENTAL ENGINEERING AND OCEAN ENGINEERING), JAIMIE MASTERSON, GALEN NEWMAN, GARETT SANSOM, JUSTIN GOLBABAI

GRADUATE STUDENTS INVOLVED: TIANYI WANG (LANDSCAPE ARCHITECTURE), SARA PRYBUTOK (URBAN PLANNING), RUBY HERNANDEZ (PUBLIC HEALTH), LEANNE FAWKES (ENVIRONMENTAL & OCCUPATIONAL HEALTH), SUJI JANG (TOXICOLOGY), CHIMEDDULAM DALAIJAMTS (TOXICOLOGY), SUNGHOON HAN (CIVIL ENGINEERING)

Galena Park is a city in Harris County, bordering the Houston Ship Channel within the Houston–Sugar Land–Baytown metropolitan area The demographic makeup is primarily Hispanic and Latino American populations Named after the Galena Signal Oil Company of Texas, the city has a history as an industrial port with its proximity to a variety of petrochemical facilities and over 130 pipelines running through the city

Purpose: To improve the resilience of Galena Park to hurricane and flood-induced releases of metals and volatile organic compounds (VOCs) (This is the second year of the three-year project)

Catalyst: In 2017, Hurricane Harvey demonstrated how natural disasters and changing environmental conditions can substantially increase pollutant releases from industrial facilities The location of many of these facilities in already vulnerable communities may further exacerbate the public health impacts of these releases Additionally, in 2019, a chemical facility including almost a dozen tanks, caught fire and emitted dangerous chemicals into the air, water, and ground Researchers from Texas A&M monitored the area during what is named the ITC Fire and recorded the highest levels of pollution in and around Galena Park With this data, the EPA funded further investigations and the development of an action plan for the City of Galena Park