Blasts ignite doubts about industry’s relationship with nearby community

PORT NECHES — Joey Elizondo moved 20 years ago into a tidy house on Main Street in Port Neches, less than a quarter-mile from a petrochemical plant, the kind of business that gives the East Texas area its personality and drives its prosperity.

If he had it to do over again, he wouldn’t.

“I would warn someone if they thought about moving here,” Elizondo said from his front yard, two

“The trust is that the community will be good citizens and, in return, these plants will operate in a safe, non-harmful manner in the course of their operations.”

Chip Ferguson, whose Ferguson Law Firm was the first to file a class-action suit against TPC

days after an explosion and fire at the TPC Group facility injured workers and residents, damaged nearby homes and businesses, and sparked a mandatory two-day evacuation.

Elizondo’s comments, and the filing of at least four lawsuits against the company in the aftermath of the blast, show an erosion in the region’s famously stoic attitude toward the risks that come with sharing such close quarters with industry.

“The trust is that the community will be good citizens and, in return, these plants will operate in a safe, non-harmful manner in the course of their operations,” said Chip Ferguson, whose Ferguson

Law Firm was the first to file a class-action suit against TPC. “Unfortunately, TPC did not do that. The community had that trust violated on Thanksgiving Eve.”

The oil and gas industry generates nearly $11 billion in gross regional product in Jefferson County each year, fifth highest among Tex

as counties. The Motiva refinery in Port Arthur is the largest in North America; a planned expansion at ExxonMobil Beaumont would make it even bigger. One state database shows 83 companies here actively tied to the industry.

Brent Roy of the United Steelworkers, the union that represents workers in the plant, embodies the more traditional view. He sees divine intervention in the limited number of injuries from the explosion. It occurred during a holiday week, he says, so no children were in school; it was during a night shift, so fewer people were in the plant; and the 30 or so workers on duty all ran in the correct direction to escape the blaze.

“Nobody’s fearful from what I’ve seen,” he said.

Even Marla Harris, who had to evacuate the Port Arthur hotel where she was living while repairs continue on her house, which was damaged more than two years ago by Tropical Storm Harvey, betrayed no intention of pulling up stakes.

“I didn’t panic because I knew the Lord was going to take care of everybody involved,” Harris said at a Red Cross shelter, where she fled with her sister and two nephews and spent Thanksgiving. “I’m not scared,” she added. “It’s not going to deter me from living here. I love where I live. I love the community. I love the people.”

That ability to get on with life, despite the dangers, sustained the region for generations as the plants grew and spread and prospered.

“For most of us, this is the career that we chose,” Roy said. “You don’t ever want to see this happen. But it’s possible, and we all know this.”

Elizondo no longer shares that confidence. He was awake for the initial TPC blast, about 1 a.m. Wednesday, and has video of the inferno illuminating the night sky. What he saw unnerved him.

“I don’t know if this county is fully prepared for something of this magnitude,” he said. “I heard no sirens coming from the plant. The fire department is right across the street, it took them at least 10 minutes to get over there.”

The TPC plant, which has been in Port Neches for 75 years under various owners, manufactures such products as butadiene and methyl tera-butyl ether, or MTBE, which are then used to make end products, including rubbers, fuels, plastics, lubricants and surfactants.

Within the last five years, the facility was fined more than $100,000 for Clean Air Act violations and it is currently not compliant with the federal law. In 2015, TPC was fined more than $45,000 for emissions in Port Neches.

Ferguson, the lawyer, said the record suggests TPC’s relationship with its community has been rocky. He called on company officials to take steps to repair it.

The first step, he said, would be for the company to have a representative explain why the plant blew up.

Company representatives and Jefferson County Judge Jeff Branick have said repeatedly they don’t yet know why the explosion happened and that the focus at this time is on preserving life and safety.

“They keep hiding behind, ‘We don’t know why we blew up,’” Ferguson said. “If they don’t know why it blew up, that’s even scarier than the first two explosions and they don’t know how to prevent the next one, but we’re letting people come back to their homes? Transparency goes a long way to build trust.”

TPC also has set up a hotline, 866-601-5880, for residents to call to report property loss, financial losses from the mandatory evacuation and concerns about debris or potential asbestos contamination.

Ferguson was critical of the effort, which he took as the company “slapping” a reference number on residents without providing meaningful help.

He said he spoke with a woman who returned from evacuation to find a white powdery substance — matching the description officials gave for what asbestos could look like — all over her home. But when she called the TPC hotline as instructed, Ferguson said, she was given no advice about what to do or a timeline for when someone might be out to inspect her home.

A TPC spokesman was unable to comment about issues with the hotline. However, in responding to issues with the number of operators previously, plant officials said they didn’t anticipate the large initial response but have since added more people to answer the phones and has pledged to return the call of everyone who couldn’t speak to a person.

Many government officials throughout Wednesday, Thursday and Friday praised TPC’s response to the explosion and its communication efforts.

“It is a fact of life that we live in … a community where we are neighbors to refineries,” Ferguson said. “That good relationship must be built on trust.”