Liberty County sues plant for $1 million
Arkema site erupted in chemical fires after Harvey struck
Liberty County jumped into an ongoing legal fray Friday when it filed a $1 million lawsuit against Arkema over the chemical fires that wreaked havoc at its Crosby plant in the aftermath of Hurricane Harvey.
The legal claim comes months after first responders and Harris County also filed high-dollar suits against the chemical company. The latest claim alleges air and water contamination spilled over into neighboring Liberty County, violating the Texas Clean Air Act, Texas Water Code, health and safety codes, and creating a public nuisance.
“Arkema needs to make sure that whatever chemicals entered the air, whatever whatever from the water thanks overflowed into the water supply, they need to ensure that now it’s clean and safe for the residents,” said Mo Aziz, a Houston-based attorney retained by the county.
The company pushed back against the “unfounded” legal claims.
“Liberty County’s lawsuit unfairly accuses Arkema and its employees of wrongdoing and contains misinformation that could unnecessarily alarm residents,” the company said in a statement. “The county and its residents could not have been seriously injured by Arkema’s releases because all monitoring and testing results show no exceedances of Texas residential environmental standards in soil, surface water, ash or drinking water occurred at off-site properties.”
One of the suit’s salient claims targets the company for its overflowing wastewater tanks that may have mingled with floodwaters.
“Rainwater accumulated in two wastewater tanks at the Site until the tanks overflowed
into their containment dikes, which subsequently also exceeded their capacity,” the suit says. “The wastewater contents thus mingled with floodwaters on the rest of the property, contaminating water in Liberty County.”
With the wastewater overflow came dangerous air releases, including “thousands of pounds of chemicals,” lawyers claim. “These included releases of ethylbenzene, mineral spirit, naphtha, naphthalene, organic peroxide, 1,2,4-trimethylbenzene, tertbutyl alcohol, and unspecified volatile organic compounds.”
About 300 homes were evacuated and more than 30 people hospitalized — including law enforcement officers — when trailers of volatile chemicals erupted into flames after the plant lost power and generators in Harvey floodwaters.
The first of nine trailers of organic peroxides exploded on the morning of Aug. 31, leaving a 40-foot plume of black smoke trailing over the northeast Harris County town. The fires came days after the French company’s Crosby Eastgate plant lost power when six feet of floodwaters drenched the facility.
The loss of power knocked out the cooling system needed to keep the heat-sensitive organic peroxides from exploding.
Authorities ordered evacuations within a 1.5-mile radius of the plant starting on Aug. 29. Two days later, the first fire broke out. In the following days, more trailers exploded and finally, on Sept. 3, the Houston Police Department’s bomb squad detonated the remaining six trailers of chemicals.
Afterward, a number of first responders and local homeowners filed suit, as did Harris County.
“This was a very dangerous situation,” County Attorney Vince Ryan said in a statement after filing a claim last year.
“Arkema must take responsibility for its inability to ensure the safety of the people of the Crosby community and those who protect them.”
The more than 120 first responders and local residents who filed claims are now going through the discovery process in federal court, Aziz said. Currently, he said, it’s “too early” for any talks about a possible settlement.