Snapshot: Toxic Pollution meets Climate Change in Calhoun County, TX

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Lavaca Bay in Calhoun County, Texas, is one of the largest and most toxic Superfund sites in the United States. In the late 1960s and 1970s, a now-closed aluminum refinery released an estimated 1.2 million pounds of mercury into the Bay. County town Seadrift is also home to a Union Carbide plant producing ethylene oxide, a building block for plastics and a disinfectant. The plant produces cancer risks 160 times what the US EPA deems acceptable risk. In 1989, Taiwan-based petrochemical company Formosa Plastics Corporation “slid in” Calhoun County, to cash in on cheap U.S. shale gas, a result of the fracking boom since the mid-2000s. An industrial worker, Dale Jurasek, noticed that Formosa was releasing massive amounts of plastic pellets into its wastewater. This was being discharged directly into Lavaca Bay. Plastic pellets are microplastics that aggregate other pollutants. Research has shown that levels of persistent organic pollutants, for example, can be more than a hundred times higher in plastic pellets than in surrounding seawater. Port Lavaca has long supported the fishing industry in Calhoun County, especially shrimping, the most important fishing industry in Texas. Persistent toxic pollution in the Bay fueled by the fracking boom has lowered the bay’s productivity. Today, most of the local fish houses are gone, replaced by big businesses.

 DISCUSSION QUESTIONS

  • Why is there an endless stream of industrial players in Calhoun County? Why are they allowed to pollute? 
  • Why do you think that  Formosa Corp was able to “slide in” at Calhoun County?
  • What chemicals did you come across in this passage? What are they used for? Search the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry for the effects of these chemicals on humans.

License

Creative Commons Licence

Contributed date

November 16, 2024 - 2:02pm

Critical Commentary

Snapshot: Toxic Pollution meets Climate Change in Calhoun County, TX

Group Audience

Cite as

Anonymous, "Snapshot: Toxic Pollution meets Climate Change in Calhoun County, TX", contributed by , Disaster STS Network, Platform for Experimental Collaborative Ethnography, last modified 16 November 2024, accessed 29 November 2024. http://465538.bc062.asia/content/snapshot-toxic-pollution-meets-climate-change-calhoun-county-tx