Document YMXmvbNZ8Qy9NxkBQwnG2Yqn

HILL AND KNOWLTON, Inc. BFGoodrich Chemical Page 1 The Daily Citizen Saturday, May 27, 1978 By MARK TOOHEY Staff Writer . .i Promising a fight "until the very! end", a Seabrook resident has' asked Kemah City Council to sup port area environmentalists in their quest to halt construction of a B.F. Goodrich chemical: planjl east of Highway 146 in Bayport. Bob Johnson, a member of the Galveston Bay Conservation and Preservation Association (GBCPA), one of several parties op posed to construction of the $100 million chlorine plant, asked coun cil Thursday to support his group's efforts. /^ The Texas Air Control Board 'TACB) ruled May 19 that construc- jn permits be issued to Goodrich 1 for its proposed facility. .j ENVIRONMENTALIST BOB JOHNSON l- Board members voted seven to (two that construction permits be ! granted, but stipulated Goodrich fshould monitor ethylene dichioride and 'chlorine emissions in the area surrounding the proposed plant site! Several area groups andcities, in cluding the GBCPA, Seabrook and El Lago, opposed to construction of the plant, were parties to a five ' week public hearing, which con cluded Marhc 7 in Seabrook. Johnson told council members ; Thursday the proposed Bayport j facility will be Goodrich's largest in \ the United States. > "They will manufacture chlorine land caustic soda;- 800 tons ofchlorine will e manufactured there per day. Some people at NASA have done a study and have deter mined that within eight minutes of a chlorine eseape if winds are out of the north lethal amounts of the tox ic gas would be emitted into the air., Your second breath could be your, last," he said. Although Johnson conceded Goodrich will use the best available control technology, he told council members the best may not be good enough. ! Johnson said GBCPA has appealed the TACB ruling to a dis trict court in Austin. "If our appeal is denied then we've exhausted our ad ministrative remedies. Then we'll being legal remedies," he added. According to Johnson, the GBCPA has a better than 50 percent chance of halting construction of the proposed facility. He added the GBCPA already has exhausted $30,000 in legal fees and urged council members to solicit support from. the residents of Kemah. "We'd like for you to urge people to send in donations. We also solicit memberships to our organization. We'd like for people to be able to tell our story," Johson said. ' Councilwoman Sylvia Jackson said she'd support the efforts of GBCPA and also urged other coun cil members to do so. "There placing it right in our laps and it's too dangerous," she said. "1 think we should consider publicly endorsing their (GBCPA) efforts," Jackson added. Mayor Ben Blackledge said he too would support the group's actions. See SUPPORT, page 3 21941001 hill and knowlton, Inc. BFGoodrich Chemical 2nd Page Page 1 The Daily Citizen Saturday, May 27, 197S -Continued from page 1 "You have a good story to tell when you tell people they might die tomorrow," he said. . Kemah resident Paul Vavra also questioned the TACB's ruling and said it neglected to consider land use. "I was there in Austin at themeeting and I'm convinced the air board is more oppose^ to what people want. It's difficult to get their' cooperation on land use," he said. "If there is a vacant spot in River Oaks, I guess they (the air board) ! would say it's alright to build a chemical plant there," Vavra added. Council agreet two weeks go to en-: dorse a resolution opposing; construction of the Goodrich facility. Council meets again at 7:30 p.m. June 8 at City Hall, 6th at Bradford. 21941002