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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
CONTACT: Katie Chimenti 281-286-9750
Natalie O'Neill 281-326-1933
September 27, 2001
An oil spill at Barbour's Cut and a train derailment at Bayport within a few hours of each other on the weekend of September 22-23 have focused nearby residents sharply on the hazards they face in major additional port and rail development proposed at Bayport.
Two vessels collided in the Houston Ship Channel near Barbour's Cut in the early afternoon of Saturday, September 22: the towing vessel Carson, pushing the barge NMS 1485, and the inbound oil tankship New Amity. The tankship sustained hull damage that punctured a fuel tank. Then a train carrying chemical cargo derailed at Bayport the following day.
"Days like this fill the community with justifiable alarm," said Katie Chimenti, vice chair of the Galveston Bay Conservation and Preservation Association (GBCPA). "Residents struggled to get official information about the accidents. People living in Shoreacres saw oily slicks lapping the bay shore on Sunday and wondered where the cleanup crews were. On Monday they were still wondering. At sunrise on Monday, children in a school bus chugged past the sprawled train, not knowing how long it had been there or what was inside the rail cars."
"Industry and the Port of Houston Authority are quick to claim that the area has effective spill response teams," said Ellyn Roof of the GBCPA board of directors. "But bayfront residents saw no spill control booms out in the bay itself and no boat or helicopter surveillance as the oil emerged from the Houston Ship Channel and crept southward into bay waters."
Most El Jardin residents, who use Port Road where the derailment occurred for access to their neighborhood, were not advised about whether hazardous materials were involved in the train accident. "We heard little in the media about either of these events until well afterward," said Charlotte Cherry of El Jardin. "In such circumstances, silence can be terrifying."
According to a General Land Office spill report, the areas affected by the oil spill reached well beyond the ship channel and Barbour's Cut, to Morgan's Point, Sylvan Beach, Shoreacres, El Jardin, Tabbs Bay, Goose Creek, Bayport Channel waters, and Atkinson Island. Garner and T&T Marine Salvage were hired to clean up the spill, and 27,900 feet of containment boom were used in the Barbour's Cut area. Some 220 barrels of oil were recovered the first night. Booms were also deployed at Houston Yacht Club. Some residents have suggested, however, that haste to reopen the ship channel led to disregard for the environment--that the spill would not have moved as far into the bay if the channel closure at Barbour's Cut had been extended.
The 1,200-acre container port now planned for Bayport would be considerably larger than the existing facilities at Barbour's Cut. More ships would be coming and going. Included in the plans for Bayport is a large railyard, many times the size of the limited rail service already in place, and in recent weeks Burlington Northern and Santa Fe has also announced plans for a new railroad ending at Bayport.
"This is a tightening noose, a pending disaster," said Nancy Edmonson, transportation specialist on the GBCPA board.
"When you have an oil spill produced by a ship accident and a derailment of loaded rail cars coming from petrochemical plants, and the events occur at almost the same time, residents are appalled at what their future might look like if port and rail facilities are allowed to multiply," Edmonson said.
Those opposing the plan for a container port at Bayport emphasize that this is the wrong location for such industrial expansion, threatening the long-term future of upper Galveston Bay residential areas in several ways. Air pollution from all the ships and diesel trucks and equipment involved in port traffic and operations would worsen air quality that is already severely compromised. Road congestion and further railroad accidents loom.
"Accidents are the exclamation marks highlighting the problem," said Edmonson. "Even without rail or ship accidents, people are going to face enormous difficulties if these plans are allowed to proceed. And there are inevitably going to be accidents."
The current status of the Bayport proposal is that the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is due to release the draft Environmental Impact Statement for the project in early November. The Corps has scheduled a major hearing for December 11 at the George R. Brown Convention Center to hear public comments. Chimenti noted, however, that the schedule on the project has already slipped multiple times.
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Galveston Bay Conservation and Preservation Association
P.O. Box 323, Seabrook, Texas 77586
Phone: 281-326-3343
Website: www.gbcpa.org
E-mail: gbcpa@gbcpa.org