Texas Green Blotter

This weekend I’m introducing a new feature for this blog, “Major Source Sunday.” Each Sunday I will be profiling a major source in the Houston-Galveston-Brazoria area.

Our first few weeks will be spent on the Texas City Industrial Complex, and I will be going from west to east, starting from State Highway 146 heading toward the Bay.

Which brings us this week to our first entry, the Union Carbide plant in Texas City, located at 3301 5th Avenue South in Texas City.

According to Union Carbide (which became a subsidiary of Dow Chemical in 2001):

This petrochemical production facility, which occupies 1,000 acres, began operating in 1941. Annually, this facility produces five billion pounds of chemicals and plastics including hydrocarbons, specialty polymers and products, solvents, intermediates, monomers and industrial products.

The plant’s most recent public operations report (dating from 2005) is located here. Notably, Union Carbide had no notice of violations (NOVs) or fines in 2005.

TCEQ, however, currently has a pending enforcement action (“2007-0209-AIR-E“) against the site for air quality violations. The details of the action are not yet available (except by Open Records Request) and an agreed order will probably be reached soon.

TCEQ recently ranked Union Carbide Texas City’s compliance history as 7.87 (“Average“).

The 2005 STARS emissions inventory reports that Vinyl Acetate Facility Number 5 (the only facility in the Union Carbide plant listed in the STARS inventory) emitted:

• 28.8 tons of PM10 (9.5 tons of PM2.5);
• 499.2 tons of VOCs;
• 92.4 tons of NOx;
• 16.4 tons of SO2; and
• 264.2 tons of CO.

Based on these 2005 data, Union Carbide Texas City is the fourth-largest source of VOCs in Galveston County.

On the positive side of the ledger, Union Carbide is also one of the largest employers in the county, with an annual payroll of over $36 million. It also pays millions in local taxes, and plays a role in many community projects.