Document x1jDaa3z49qK9DvDx5gpN5jB6

r\ *> August, 1979 4 Modest Proposal... CIE^EMTS U fi i rt.'? t j**' ; i?* i] h ,. k W' kib b & Pa.W W La*' (Seepage 70j tfia a s #54 Editorial in January of 1979 the citizens of Galveston voted overwhelming ly to stop inflationary taxation. It is time for these same citizens to once again rally and stop ah in flationary rate increase request by Houston and Lighting Power Co. The utility company has ap plied for a 20% rate increase--a full 13% over President Carter's anti-inflation guidelines. We feel this rate increase re quest is unnecessary and infla tionary. The utility employs a double standard. Why is it they can pass through fuel cost increases but will not pass through to the consumer decreases in costs? Did anyone see a decrease on their light bill because HL&P's Galves ton property taxes were lowered by $61,000 due to the revaluation of property? No. All we got was a 20% rate increase request. This money grab can be stcopfed. The light company must go before our City Council for permission to increase utility rates. We urge you to remind your elected officials of the mandate you gave them on January 20, 1979. In plain terms, we are tired of runaway costs im posed on the public by unelected bureauracies. The Light Company's 20% rate increase is beyond the bounds of reason. Let's hope our elected officials 3re more reason able and realize that. RSV 0006909 L. X. ' has bt-en r'.oi'sr Steve hJch Huff- now been Galveston .-seed after ior ad in s week. \.'s office d notified .st police ..led that teprosth stuMar- nlssioner Mayor of longtime Joyle has mount of ng cam- publish* Six may paper to o Cruse, .e. but -tures, iui for -'.eatre s you should acre's >L'pera. >>lly: ana _hlnk. . and et; a agat be - ay jme* rc- : tar this -"&e -uner "Log 1 of the .son stin features 23 GAMBLING and the gamblers who made Gal veston "Sin aty."X/f7/r Waldman 27 RETURN of a native son to the Island he left behind. Bill Schadwell 3 CHEMICALS at the Texas City Wye waste pit may be fatal. Lee Hochberg dspaF&Esseimts p. 7 Whatever happened to gas lines? p. lOClements for President? p. 15 Around Town: Skate.City! p. 56 Visitor's Guide: What to do. p. 58 The Historical Strand! Stsfu Joe Murphy Pete Fredriksen Steven Long Publisher/Ediior Jn Between Advertising Director Susan PcrmenUT Asst. Advertising Director Bill MarahcHfl Mainland Bureau Lee Hochberg Error Executioner Bet ween Magazine is published everv other Thursday by Galveston Countv Monthly Publishing Company, 23 N The Strand. Galveston, Texas?75S<0. (713) 763-2020. "Hot Tubs" Make Warm Friends Leisure ideas of Galveston Introduces The Hot Tub AndyRuffipo Stan Harper 763-1811 765-9100 i RSV 0006910 ui. i i> 1it Chemical wastepits emit vinyl chloride. Nest Door to 1 Jk by Lee Hochberg I ) At least six hundred residents of La Marque were exposed to possibly deadly amounts of vinyl chloride between 1973 and 1978. The Texas Air Control Board (TACB) knows that any of the people may be developing liver cancer as a result, and so does the Galveston County Health District. The only people who don't know are the six hundred residents them selves. These people are in the dark about their exposure to vinyl chloride because the TACB thought that it would be best not to tell them about it. The TACB officials reasoned that not dis closing the problem would avoid unnecessary panic. According to the TACB, vinyl chloride in the La Marque area may or may not cause cancer and they felt nothing could be gained by disclosing the problem. But these same TACB officials are admitting that they would never take the risk of living where those 600 unknowingly did. The threat to health is that real. In concern are 600 people who between 1973 and 1978 lived in the Sunflower Mobile Home Park, a trailer camp which backed up upon the so-called Petro-Processors Waste Pits near the Texas City Wye. The seven open waste pits in that area are between 12 and 25 feet deep and contain nearly 100.000 barrels of highly toxic industrial wastes. In July of 1978, the Texas Atr Control Board discovered that carcino genic vinyl chloride levels downwind from the pics at the trailer camp were three times the acceptable health level. The TACB warned in an inter-office report that "people in the nearby residential areas are being exposed to concentrations in excess of a recommended health standard." But to this date, those people have not beer warned and the TACB has no intention to change that. "The damage was already done," says TACB Regional Supervisor Lloyd Stewart. "We need to concentrate on the present and the future, not the past. We didn't have the need or the time to tell everyone." Emissions of carcinogenic vinyl chloride continue today, and are only one of three significant health dangers originating from the Petro-Processor Pits. As vinyl chloride slides downwind through the La Marque air, the underground water table is being permeated by some extremely toxic metallic and organic contaminants that, according to Tom Kearns of the Texas Water Rights Commission, could enter the Galveston Bay marine food chain, and eventually cause continued p. 34 30 IN BETWEEN RSV 0006911 ossibly nay be Health them- -cause in the xposed tended ve not rntion jready -rrvisor .te on past, o tell .oride three from oride irpue oeing -.allic -g to .lghis rston 21USC 34 RSV 0006912 { k i 1 i 1 i! serious human illness not unlike the mercury poisoning that killed 67 persons and perman ently disabled 331 others six years ago in Japan. And if these hazards weren't enough, several unlabeled drums of highly toxic chem icals are spewn across the ground around the open pits, luring opportunistic chemical dealers to the valuable drums without know ledge of the deadly materials inside. But there is no doubt the vinyl chioride represents the biggest health hazard. The trailer- camp was closed in November of 1978 for tax reasons, according to owner Robert Nesmith of Houston, and not until In Between told him this week of TACB's discovery of excess vinyl chloride emissions was he informed of the health threat. "Wow," he mused. "It's a good thing we got out of there. I had thought about redeveloping the property, but it stinks so bad there is no way I can lure people back. But nobody told me it was dangerous." Dr. Norman Treiff, Co-Director of the Division of Environmental Toxicology at the UTMB Department of Preventative Medicine and Community Health, would have told him. "In light of those facts, I sure wouldn't live there," he said. "Vinyl chloride is a known carcinogen of the human liver, and also causes glial tumors in the brain and respiratory tumors in humans." Tricff specu lated that the vinyl chloride levels at the trailer homes introduced a "definite possibi lity" of liver cancer in perhaps one or two residents, especially any resident who drank moderately to heavily or made common use of the sedative drug phenobarbitol. Trieff also wondered if the chemical had caused any mutagenic birth defects in babies born to Sunflower Motor Homes residents; if father or mother was exposed to the carcino gen at the time of conception, the child might have suffered such effects. Trieff cautioned that no assurance exists that any La Marque trailerowner was affected by high vinyl chloride emissions. The cancer takes several years to develop and without word from the TACB, affected individuals have little reason to be suspicious. But Trieff called the TACB silence about vinyl chloride emissions, "unethical, immoral, and maybe illegal." But TACB official Stewart maintained that no value would have come from informing the trailer park residents. "Fear would have breathed fear and we would have found ourselves in a runaway situation," he said. "If we had cone door-to-door, people would ha\c said. "Oh, my God, is it dangerous? and we wouldn't have known what to say." Only in Cohlornia has an air safety standard for vinyl cnloride been established, though its maximum of 10 parts per billion is widely accepted across the United States. TACB's Stewart called the California standard "an educated guess" and pooh-poohed the TACB laboratory reading of 30 parts per billion - cornimicd next pape - View of (three time the trailer didn't wan out," he : the trailer \ so that solv As for t have alrea: plied that area, and "A trailer people, an; in the Tc be exposec chloride. I accomplish "But we the entire s: The TA< chloride d gu*z and the owner to remove rene tars Southern i Co. (Sout styrene tar of Domin: Houstor.ia: were com: worried a children. S the La Ma. 34 IN BETWEEN RSV 0006913 I 1 ) ( : or two :o drank common j1. Trieff J caused :es bom 'ents; if ;arcinone child :e exists affected t cancer without nviduals us. But ut vinyl rat, and r.ed that orming .Id have - found ::e said, t would serous? c say." tandard though - widelv "ACB's rd "an TACB billion i tk (three times the California limit) found in ed, JOC blew the whistle to the TACB, the trailer park as inconclusive. "We just which measured extremely high vinyl chloride didn't want to make people panic and move content in the Southern Pacific area. The out," he said. "A month later, we heard TACB immediately ordered that if Southern the trailer park was closing for other reasons, Pacific were to continue the use of styrene I \ so that solved all our problems. " from those pits that it take out a permit As for the problems of those who might for vinyl chloride and purchase equipment have already contracted cancer, Stewart im- to lower emissions. Southern Pacific instead plied that such was the risk of living in the simply canceled the contract with Dominguez area, and the residents already knew that. and Sapp for the contaminated styrene and "A trailer park tends to attract transient returned to its original vendor. people, anyway, and if they are going to live Then the TACB investigation shifted to in the Texas City area, they're going to La Marque, where officials recorded vinyl be exposed to things even worse than vinyl chloride readings of 30,000 parts per million chloride. I don't see what we would have in the pits, surging to 80,000 pans per accomplished by going door-to-door." million when the tar was heated. .Local of "But we were very uncomfortable about ficials were appalled. "Now that carcinogen the entire situation, I admit." is just sitting there," laments La Marque The TACB first became aware of the vinyl Mayor Romye Crowder. "If the TACB had chloride danger in February, 197S, Domin left Southern Pacific alone, it might be out guez and Sapp Enterprises contracted with of this area now. The TACB eliminated a the owners of the waste pits, Moico. Inc., useful process." to remove several thousand barrels of sty Where did the vinyl chloride come from rene tars from the pit, to be delivered to in the first pteoe? Nobody is really sure, Southern Pacific in Houston. But JOC Oil nor do they know how much is in the seven Co. (Southern Pacific's original source of pits. The pits had originally been excavated styrene tar extender and thus a competitor of Dominguez and Sapp) discovered that Houstonians near the Southern Pacific plant to provide soil for U. S. Highway 75. In 1959, Petro-Proccssors began to use them as a reclamation center for recovery of recycl were complaining of headaches and were able materials from Monsanto's waste styrene worried about the health of their young tars. The recycling operation was abandoned children. Suspecting that the styrene ur from the La Marque pit was somehow contaminat (Body of text continued on page 6) IN BETWEEN 35 RSV 0006914 POuCSSCTS BACK ID SCK3QL CESSCK LIST BIB OVERALLS Caito*, Mria MmI OCEAN PACIFIC SHIRTS -- tqp' A Mm'i /SHOES -- Cart hiiia^ Iwti Kifi Inn <; Unm,, slax -- Lal. Cta Oaki - MAU- MrVwk). jP hffa|NI V'LEVI's CORDUROY JEANS - itUn-SwillNN /t STRAIGHT LEVI's, SHRINX-TO-FIT ^ BELLS, BOOT JEANS DRESS SHIRTS -- Yn Hmn Cwmt CM Dpi fcta* ImM Hi V sport shirts -- ftort . lap' mi Mm'i ItauNlu Mtta JmJ FOR THE GALS Vy tall Denim A Cw4i Colvin Klein Semi) Poor Uttie Sidi CM MALI Giorio Vondofbih taidlotaor lb CvanJ* Oeoon Pocinc BLOUSES & SWEATERS & VELOURS l>|NiMU, innCoN*r bom Pi Cn juaiw Im OewWri [milm Wwi - n* Nm* * NrtflrAvf* Vila Diiif'i Owl* twrliN li|mi Something New Every Day At.. . bU i >*| ; -3! ' VM i - Vi U UULUl^WLJ C? GALVIZ MALL 36 IN BTWEEN [ mmamrrvr* imt 11 n(srar-: >< Hi (c A; i mm!<s i&JKBtk. 1 Several 55 gallon drums arc also resting on the bottom of the pits, their contents and origin unknown. in 1961 after inundation from Hurricane Carla, and from 1961 to 1968 the land was used as a dump ground for styrene tars, oily wastes, spent adds, and metallic catylysts as copper chloride, mercuric chloride, elemental lead and mercury. Apparently, vinyl chloride bottoms were included in the waste. Several SS gallon drums are also resting on the bottom of the pits, their con tents and origin unknown. And none of the industries or trucking companies which have dumped the wastes are admitting to having kept records of the materials (although environmentalists claim trucking companies always file bills of lad ing, and that industries keep track of wastes for future use in the reclamation- process). A Texas Water Rights Commission in vestigation has been halfhearted at best; a TWRC form letter asking all involved parties what materials are in the pits got Little or no response last year and no subse quent effort has since been made. ' Whenever it came from, experts are ex pressing surprise at the continuing amounft of vinyl chloride that are still venting from the pits. "An air-conditioned car going 80 down Route 146 isn't going to have any problems," says Kearns. "But when I'm up there, I make sure I stay upwind, and I'm not kidding." He's fortunate to know of a danger that 600 people didn't. "When I'm up there (at the site) I make sure I stay upwind, and I'm not kidding. " Kearns is forced to make several trips annually to the site to investigate another major health threat--the seepage and over flow of liquid contaminants in the pits into adjoining properties. -The pits are unlined. A 1975 TWRC study showed that con tents of the pits were in "hydrological com munication with shallow ground water," -continued next page and the natur inc soil had interaction ot bottoms with "waste has and has caus< oil comamir. Those was' elemental me lysts as coppe Kearns warn the comamir. tinues. some can be expet the Galvestor ing series o that the wati Dr. James I photographe the death o: life in a pa: bay. "The. just a seepi said. "Thep now the a: "Th seeping I i The pi absorb i i animal next." No evidei ! ing water | has yet beet ; closest pot: i dence of ; metallic cc ! maintaining water. "W says Kearns The usut procedure owner of t available i {the owner in 1976. 1 not yet b< court. So i of funds, taminants; And wat not a diC RSV 0006915 - I ^. 1 , drums are tom of the md origin am Hurricane the land was styrene tars, metallic caty- curic chloride, . Apparently, ncluded in the urns are also sits, their con- ?s or trucking ed the wastes records of the cntalists claim e bills of ladrack of wastes -lion* process), mission in:rted at best; ; all involved the pits got and no subse- txperts are exruing amounts venting from car going 80 to have any . when I'm up rind, and I'm to Know of a fQt the site) id, and 1 m sc\eral trips icate another ugc and ovcr. the pus into are untincd. cd that cnn'olocical com-und water," nuirJ nru T-'gt and the natural pern jility of the underly ing soil had been markedly increased after interaction of the styrene and vinyl chloride bottoms with the clay. The result is that "waste has permeated deep and laterally, and has caused a high content of metal and oil contamination in the ground water." Those wastes include deadly amounts of elemental mercury and lead, and such catylysts as copper chloride and mercuric chloride. Kearns warned that if, over several years, the contamination of the ground water con tinues, some "very serious health effects" can be expected as the contaminants enter the Galveston Bay food chain. And a frighten ing series of aerial photographs indicates that the water has, indeed, reached the bay. Dr. James Parker of La Marque strikingly photographed (through infrared photography) the death of the chiorophyl layer of plant life in a path leading from the pits to the bay. "The earth between those points is just a seeping mass of pollution," Parker said. "The plants are obviously absorbing it-- now the animals of the bay are next." "The earth is just a seeping mass of pollution. The plants are obviously absorbing it--now the animals of the bay are next." No evidence of contamination of the drink ing water (drawn from a lower water strata) has yet been uncovered; samples from the two closest potable water wells showed no evi dence of contamination from organic or metallic compounds. But the TWRC is not maintaining a constant monitor on the area water. "We just don't have the money." says Kearns. The usual avenue of funding a monitoring procedure is to require monies from the owner of the dangerous property. It is un available in this case, because Motco Inc. (the owner of the pits) declared bankruptcy in 1976. The assets of the company have not yet been distributed from bankruptcy court. So the federal agencies, claiming tack of funds, have only watched as the con taminants spread. And watching those contaminants spread is not a difficult task after a heavy rainfall. - columned ursi p.ipc - *SV 0006916 iu ixcg a u tm m auunmChUgMaa. a x\ l ,am rr, >1 <} w1* "A SLICE OBI TEJE ViELD SICE" 10:00 AM-TM ' -t i &' fc ' SAFE..SUPER..SUMMER..SPLASH Ail m faon 6 to 84 on}oy wooping down 400 foot Iumqu nm niM, Brins yoiu iwimvuitf. ut ouf -- *-n isqs. enjoy ou> tefroonmont vtd void* Ov*s ncno*V from raid-morning, afternoon irg. tthr permitting. amTMu i*r S &MMJI tMlmnl ?U-7& lilt m ~ nTJUl ss // 38 IN Be"- ==N bit Ul "I sure do worry about a hurricane but I feci there's nothing I could do about it. The state agencies just aren't doing their job." admit pollution officials. A Galveston County Health District study admits that moderate levels of organic contamination, including excessive levels of copper, lead, and manga nese run off from the pits after rainfall. "1 lost six acres of my land when the trailer park was there," owner Nesmith resigns. "The styrene would flow in after rain and embed in the soft earth. It would look safe to walk on until you fell to your ankles in tar." The state filed charged against Motco in 1976, reporting that wastes from the pits were flowing into drainage ditches which emptied into Jones Bay and the Gulf of Mexico. Like earlier TWRC orders against Motco, the charges were ignored and no action was taken. In the aftermath of Tropical Storm Clau dette, officials shudder at the effect a hurri cane storm tide might have on the pits which are three feet above sea level. "I sure do worry about a hurricane," said Mayor Crowder of La Marque. "But I feel there's nothing I can do about it. The state agencies just aren't doing their job." Similar failure has plagued the state's attempts to clean up a third major health hazard at the pits. More than 100 large drums of extremely toxic chemicals lay hap hazardly about the site. TWRC correspon dence says the drums were ``ostensibly brought to the site (by-Dominiguez and Sapp) to treat, the oily waste," but the company closed down its operation and left the drums "to create a new hazard." The TWRC ordered Dominquez and Sapp to remove the drums almost one year ago, only to find late last month that at least 90 were still there. "The drums include acids, caus tics, chlorinated solvents and hydroflouric acid," a new report shows. "Now they are old, severely corroded, mislabeled or not labeled, and severely swollen." The drums are completely exposed to the elements and public access unrestricted, and the TWRC says ihc drums have been tampered with of late, probably by unsuspecting chemical dealers in search of valuable empty 55 gallon drums. "They don't know what they're getting into," Kearns said. 4,,rhcse drums are a serious threat to the environment and a very real public health hazard." But besides a repeated continued p. 41 RSV 0006917 The TAC.T- in last ir.'jnth ccr^rnitiyd bomt f::nds i:i assist A the dcarr.iu-- oKl2,COC* io be used ue` to cleanup iiic poiiinion, but io study it. request to Dominicuez and Sapp for remove! of the drum.-, the 7WRC has taken no action. Officials at TACIi end T'^'PC are admit- teoiy concerned about the pits, about cancer- causing \in> 1 cr.b.midc, about poisons in the ground water. about tome chemicals in easy wa!.. d stance of Roure 146. ibut Ml insist there is notning the}' can do. A com plete cleanup of the pits would cost nearly five million dollars, Kearns said, and that kind of money is unavailable to them. The effort to divide up Motco's assets is bogged down in court and has been for over a year; TWRC has put a claim for some of that money, but Kearns has no idea if or when that will cot.is through, State Senator Babe Schw?.rt2 macs an ef fort to introduce a bili in this year's senate that would have diverted some state funds to the cleanup process, but that bill died in committee. Almos; as an insult, the TACB in Austin last month, committed seme funds to assist in the cleanup--SJ02,030 vc be used not to clean-up the pollution, but to study it. "That's all we can do for now, until we get some funds,'' Kearns s<bd- And ?s pollution ofbda's in Houston, Austin, and vVashingtoo lament from nine to five cbc-ut their ;c.:k of funds and cpinnv- ntent failure*, residents of La Marouc ;;ud the bay area can do nothing but come home and wait. "These aeencic' just have to clear up their act." said Mayor Crowder. "Tries arc simply uoi enforcing their laws. And v-uen all is said and done, we don't have five million dollars to clean it up cither. If they don't come up with the money, it will stay v here i: is.'' Unfortunately, the pollutants won't srav where they are. The contaminants wtM con tinue to seen into the ground io the pro and. without action, make their way into 'be marine life o! the region. The cmn;::,:! crunw m:o vanish into the imch* of .an- ci1 >--if ;rw sandal* aren't seriotisiy hv'n?-:; first. And wb.ile the viny! chloride hewers twer the immediate area, it' effects tn.iv be 'u.:'.clinn ovei La Maiciuc o: ri ow.;.-. the bodies of the forme: trail;; |urh ;csider.:<. I.jm. TACil s]vboni:'.n saw i h : `-'Uia-ie is hlr.miy uouc. C- RSV 0006916