“All Hell Breaks Loose”: How Big Oil Ruined a Small Texas Town

[00:00:00] Intro: Hello and welcome back to Drilled, I'm Amy Westervelt. This week we're thrilled to be re-publishing a series on our site from The Xylom about a small town in Texas that happens to be the country's top oil export hub. But it wasn't always that way. About 10 years ago, residents bought houses next to a naval base — maybe not ideal, but they could get a house near the ocean in an affluent, sleepy community. Then the naval base shut down, the export terminals took over and this predominantly white, conservative affluent town became a fenceline community.

Alex Ip, who reported and wrote the series, is here to tell us more.

Alex Ip: Hi, my name is Alex ip. I'm the founder, publisher, and editor of The Xylom.

Amy Westervelt: I would love to hear Alex, how you first stumbled across this town, because it has [00:01:00] so many standout. Weird little facts about it, and I'm like, how have I never heard of this place?

Alex Ip: Yes. So, I have to thank the Society for Environmental Journalists, which I am a member, and also the Institute for Journalism and Natural Resources. They organized a post-conference tour in SEJ 2022, which was in Houston at the time. And I was invited to participate in this trip along with a number of other journalists to go down to South Texas, to the Texas Coastal Bend, which is where Corpus Christi is, and also to surrounding towns and villages.

So we wanted to understand what are some environmental challenges facing this part of the country where there's a lot of oil and gas activity.

So this little town that we're talking about is Ingleside on the Bay in Texas. This town has around 614 [00:02:00] people as of the last census. And it is a reasonably wealthy town in South Texas. It has the second highest home prices within the Corpus Christi metro area. It has access to Corpus Christi Bay, which is one of the larger bays that connects to the Gulf of Mexico.

It is also a town that's really white. Census data shows that roughly 85% of their residents are white. It is also quite a conservative town. It voted for Trump for a margin of over 50 points in the last three presidential elections.

But what is also really interesting about Ingleside on the Bay is that it is located in close proximity to three crude oil export terminals. So, when you know, America drills oil, a lot of the oil, it exports to various countries . So in order to have the oil get from the oil fields to other countries, you [00:03:00] have to use pipelines to send them to where it meets the ocean, where it gets loaded up into oil tankers and then they go their way to different countries. Ingleside on the Bay has two of the largest crude oil export terminals in the entire us.

It has the single largest crude oil export terminal in the U.S.. It has the second largest. crude oil export terminal in the US. There used to be a third one, but it got purchased by the biggest one, so now there's only two left in effect. Based on what we can estimate, half of the U.S.'s crude oil export industry is found in this little town, and residents live less than two miles and in certain places, maybe, you know, half a mile away from crude oil export terminals where these oil tankers just come in and out, in and out, and they load oil, and sometimes there are accidents, sometimes there are incidents and residents have to deal with it on a daily basis.

Amy Westervelt: [00:04:00] And. I think, I think the thing that that struck me most about this story when you first were talking to me about it is that this is not maybe the type of community we often think of or see when we're talking about frontline communities. So this is a pretty affluent, pretty white, town. And they are a Fenceline community.

I'm curious what you found, when you talked to people. How do they view themselves in comparison to other Fenceline communities? Are some of these people, folks who have maybe voted for policies that they're now being negatively impacted by?

Alex Ip: So I do wanna add a caveat that I never asked directly any of the sources that I talked to. You know, what political party they identify

Amy Westervelt: Who did you vote for? No.

Alex Ip: No, I didn't ask. Because, this is not an issue that belongs to one political party or not. This transcends political [00:05:00] boundaries because you can just observe the impact that they're facing on a day-to-day basis.

It doesn't care whether you belong to a political party or another political party, or you don't believe in political parties at all. One thing I did notice was a lot of residents moved in about 10 years ago. That's when the home prices started increasing. A lot of them weren't really aware of what was happening because, the place where all these crude oil export terminals used to be was a naval station, but people just sort of lived with it.

There are drawbacks to being next to a naval station, but that people lived with it. There's a lot of people who used to be related to, you know, the military communities. And now, this former Naval base has a new life as a crude oil export terminal, and these residents were sort of just thinking about retiring, thinking about having a good time.

They wanted to go fish. They wanted to go eat seafood. They wanted just to hang out, do their thing. And now they're realizing [00:06:00] that this is no longer something they can do on a day-to-day basis. And they are upset about this. They are shocked, I would say. They couldn't really figure out why this would happen to them, but this is also something that they are determined to put a stop to.

So they are organizing not just within their little town, but also organizing with various groups across the coastal bend, across the Corpus Christi metro area that has, uh, different racial backgrounds, different ethnicities, different income backgrounds, different political leanings. They realize that the best way to respond to these challenges is to work together with groups who might have, you know, different ideas of how to do it, but they have a same ultimate goal of making sure that there's good regulations on the crude all terminals. And also to maybe just stop them if wherever they can.[00:07:00]

Amy Westervelt: That's super interesting. For some of these people, this is maybe their first time organizing, right? What's their experience with having to organize and being in a situation where, you know, the local government, the state government, et cetera, is not necessarily on their side?

Alex Ip: Yes. So, one thing I would say for this town, Ingleside on the Bay, is, residents do recognize some of the connections and privileges they have. And so they're able to, for example, apply for various philanthropic funding that could help support the work they've been doing.

They realize that they need to show up in numbers. That's why they show up to various public meetings, hearings, and they also try to coordinate a message. They wanna coordinate with a simple message, that they can remember from the top of their head and they could just speak clearly about what their demands are and what they're not happy about.

What I also [00:08:00] noticed is for a lot of these folks some of their educational background helps, or some of their previous business background helps and it's trying to figure out how in this stage of their lives they're trying to look out for their kids and their grandkids and how can they use the remaining time that they're around the town or the energy that they have to put it to a purpose that they think that could benefit the people around them.

Amy Westervelt: Right. That makes sense. What are the sorts of things that people are dealing with as a result of having these facilities nearby? What are some of the daily things that they are, are having to deal with when, I know you mentioned accidents and incidents before, but what do those look like and what's the experience like for these people?

Alex Ip: Yes. So in a span of a year and a week, there were two oil spills that happened right next to Ingleside on the bay. This doesn't [00:09:00] just affect Ingleside on the Bay, obviously, because, uh, when you have an oil spill, there are chemicals that are in the air, there are chemicals that are in the water, and it spreads.

And so what residents have described through, you know, the public social media posts, or through conversations that I have with them, or when they're testifying publicly, is that everything from, you know, they feeling really nauseous. They can't, you know, open the doors, open the windows. They notice that, you know, fish have been dying, crabs have been dying.

They can't fish as much as they did anymore. Their pets are going insane because pets also can smell what's in the air or they can feel that something's not right. And in certain cases, certain residents report that they have asthma. Now, while I am not able to establish, you know. Causal relationship between, these facilities and their asthma, These residents do say that they have [00:10:00] never had asthma or health issues before moving to Ingleside on the Bay. One thing that also is a big point of anger of these residents is that, they bought these homes to be by the Bay. That's what Ingleside on the Bay is about, and they found that it is getting harder and harder for them to do recreational activities or fishing simply because there's a lot of oil tankers going around. There's a lot of dredging to deepen the channel, and they're concerned that this prevents them from physically accessing a lot of these spaces that they can do such activities. And finally, you know, residents are concerned of a future risk of their home prices getting lower.

Amy Westervelt: Okay, let's have you set up the TCEQ hearing

Alex Ip: So the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality, which residents commonly refer to as TCEQ, they're supposed to have a regulatory [00:11:00] process before they issue a state permit for Clean Air Act or other federal laws.

So in this case, in January, 2024. They had a notice in common hearing where representatives from Enbridge, the Canadian oil and gas company that's trying to get, their permit renewed for five years, get to speak to residents, and also with other concerned citizens, advocates, elected officials, and collects public comments.

TCEQ did in February, green lit the permit renewal. So this was a view of the process of how it happened.

TCEQ Hearing: My name is Lynn [00:12:00] Porter, I live in Ingleside on the Bay. You just talked about vapor release. I know there's vapor release. I see it. I smell it. I have to stay inside. I'd like to thank you. Now at 63 I have two inhalers I never had to have before Until three years ago, I live down the bay and I am a runner. So lung should be pretty good. My main concern is TCEQ, There are 500 elementary children from 3 to 6, 1.6 miles from this. And I know where those vapors go. The wind takes them. There is no monitor by that school. Why? That should be in the permit. There is no monitor at any of our schools.

Amy Westervelt: I was really struck by this woman who has been a runner her whole life, you know, still wants to run every day, but she's now having health issues because the air [00:13:00] quality is so bad. I'm just curious, if you heard that from multiple people and what kind of daily annoyances people are having just from being exposed to all these volatile organic compounds in the air too.

Alex Ip: Yeah, so not just volatile organic compounds, but when the oil spills happened, right there were just yellow clumps of stuff that's on the shore that's not being cleaned, and residents have sent me photos of those clumps of oil, so. There are two layers to this. The one thing is that it is very annoying, nauseous to, to inhale this on a daily basis or to, walk through the oil spills whenever they happen.

The other thing that residents are concerned about is they don't know what's really in the air or they don't feel like they have the knowledge or the know how to fully understand this. And that's a hard thing. Knowledge that they don't know what's really in there. The uncertainty of [00:14:00] what am I inhaling on a daily basis?

What is there in the water or what's on the shore? They don't really know. And I think that adds to the stress that residents have living in Ingleside on the Bay.

Amy Westervelt: Where do things stand right now for this community and what kinds of things are they hoping to get done? Where are they at now in their fight?

Alex Ip: Yeah, so. Right, two of the US largest crude oil export terminals are located right next to Ingleside on the Bay. Not only that, there's been a plan for one of those companies, Enbridge, a Canadian oil and gas company to work with Yarra, who's a Norwegian chemical company to build a facility that creates ammonia.

This ammonia will be exported to support agricultural needs and that won't be sold in the U.S.. So a lot of [00:15:00] residents are trying to fight the ammonia facility. They're also trying to intervene in this process for these facilities need to get their licenses renewed every five years.

And so residents have been showing up. To public meetings, showing up, writing letters, writing public comment, and the public comment petition period is still active until May 28th, and residents are hoping that, the federal government would step in and to hold not just the oil company accountable, but also the TCEQ, which is the state level environmental regulatory agency accountable, so they could make sure that these companies.

Don't pollute the environment and also not to emit various greenhouse gases or various pollutants that will harm the community.

One thing I also [00:16:00] wanted to note is how much data is important and how when we don't have data, things fall apart. So one thing that's, uh, which really struck me and I was doing this reporting process, which was also confirmed by the TCEQ, was that they did not have a single air quality monitor.

The state set up in the entire county of where Ingleside on the Bay is. So this is San Riz County in South Texas. All the sensors are in New Asis County, which is on the other side of Corpus Christi. So the question is, if there's no data that residents can access from the state government, then what they can do in this case, do they buy their own sensors?

And risk not having the data that they collected from these sensors accepted by various agencies. Do they just give the best shot [00:17:00] at what the government can give them? Or do they trust self-reported data from all these oil and gas companies and to try to make the best out of it? That's a big thing. You know, if you don't have data.

It's very hard to start a conversation, or if you don't have the data, you can't see the trends, you can't see the outliers. What we can know is that the risk of toxic chemicals in San Riz County, which is where this little town is located, has increased 17 times since 2018, which means that it is now more risky to live on.

Side where Ingleside on the bay is compared to where Corpus Christi is and where all the oil and gas development happened earlier last decade. The final thing that I've been noticing is that, you know, the Trump administration has deleted certain federal data and federal databases, and that has affected [00:18:00] residents and has affected my reporting.

When I was starting this investigation, it was late into the Biden administration. At the time there was data, but the data has been outdated because it takes, you know, up to a calendar year for the reporting to happen and for them to be uploaded to public databases for people to see. Which also means this data that we're working with that we're citing in this reporting represents a snapshot in time.

It's something in the past and come and when we are looking at the break neck pace of how, this oil and gas expansion has been. You know, we've been hearing that Enbridge, for example, nearly doubled how much oil they export every day, just in the past year. Then that's something that residents are essentially playing a game of catch up.

And now in the Trump administration, certain databases such as EJ Screen or short for Environmental Justice [00:19:00] Screen, which looks at various types of risks that certain neighborhoods face that's been taken offline. Which means that residents have fewer data to work with to compare them to their own situations.

What's happening to nearby towns across the state or compared to some, uh, environmental justice hotspots such as Cancer Alley or Beaumont, Texas. And when we have less and less data, our journalism work is harder for one. And the second thing is resident just feels like, you know, they're being hit in the dark.

They don't know what's happening to them, and that is something that, you know, we have to grapple with. As environmental journalists moving forward, how can we, uh, gather data that is accurate and authoritative? You know, without relying on what the federal government has given us in the past.

Amy Westervelt: That's so huge right now. I don't think people really realize what we're losing as the government eliminates [00:20:00] programs that collect this data, takes the data offline, makes it illegal to share the data. You know, the Environmental Defense Fund just had to sue the government to get the greenhouse gas inventory released, for example.

Alex Ip: Yes. And I, I love ProPublica, They've been doing top-notch work. I love, you know, inside climate news, they've been doing top-notch work. I wanna shout out the work that Lisa Song Al Shaw. Lila Es and also Dylan Bedo has been working on in this region. And I've benefited a lot from the prior reporting before I started my reporting.

But what I realized was, you know, they rely on data as well. And for example, when ProPublica published the most detailed map of cancer causing industrial air pollution in the United States, it published this story in 2021. The data in the map covers emissions from 2014 to 2018, which was three years ago.

The time that we have to [00:21:00] spend to verify all the data, which also means that we are playing catch up as well, and we're not being able to show residents in real time what they're dealing with on a day-to-day basis, and when we are showing risk. Risk is also something that, it's like playing Russian roulette.

You have a more likely chance of getting cancer, but. You know, some big incident can happen and the numbers change really quickly. Or for some folks, it's like, when it happens, it happens. So how can we communicate this risk to residents and provide them with useful information so they can act on it?

That's also something that I think both journalists, residents, advocates, policy makers, elected officials, need to really sit down and think about in these uncertain times.

Amy Westervelt: Completely, completely agree. Thank you so much, Alex.