Every time a natural disaster occurs, this crap is soon to follow:
Damage from Hurricane Harvey may have released as much as 2 million pounds of potentially hazardous airborne pollutants from oil refineries and other facilities in the Houston area, according to regulatory filings submitted to the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality.
In some cases, the estimated amounts released vastly exceed legal limits — but the state agency can't confirm how many contaminants have been released because air-quality monitoring stations throughout the area were shut down prior to Harvey's landfall.
We're not just talking about gasoline-related issues; the location of these refineries also means Houston is a hub for all petrochemical byproducts, from various plastics to a smorgasbord of industrial chemicals. The word "nasty" doesn't even come close. And when you're talking about air(borne) pollutants, even a few thousand pounds is a lot of dangerous particles. 2 million pounds? That's catastrophe-level stuff. Just one of the culprits is Benzene, and it's likely making an appearance in several Houston neighborhoods:
http://ift.tt/2eOEgW1
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