EL PASO — On the night of August 4th, Linda Favela knew something was wrong. The refinery alarms blared throughout the night, so loudly she felt as if a firetruck was parked right in front of her house.
“The animals in the neighborhood go crazy. They howl when there's an ambulance,” she said. “Everybody was trying to figure out what was happening” Favela said.
She dialed the Marathon refinery customer service line. It rang and rang but no answer.
Favela, 60, has lived in the Corbin Sambrano neighborhood across the street from the refinery her entire life. Some evenings a strong odor prevents her from swimming in the pool with her family.
“It’s like a smell of rotten eggs, what you would smell if you went into your garbage bin,” Favela said. “If you're outside, you can't get away from it. It actually makes you nauseous.” On this night it was much worse and it was drifting beyond the neighborhood.
Fred Borrego, president of the San Juan Neighborhood Association and a local business owner was on Scenic Drive with his grandson when he noticed the odor.
Then as he drove down near the refinery, it got stronger. “When I got to Montana and Copia, oh my goodness, could you smell it,” Borrego said. “It was just terrible.”
It’s always been a love-hate relationship with the refinery, he said. His business, Alco Machine Tool & Steel Inc. is a quarter mile away from Marathon. On some days when the winds shift, his air conditioner picks up an odor that is nauseating and overwhelming, he said. Nevertheless, Borrego doesn’t want the Marathon to close.
“Of course not. We need their products. There's good-paying jobs. They're good for the community,” he said.“But what we can do is put monitors on the fence line.
He’s wants the refinery making changes to improve conditions for nearby residents and businesses. “Come on, guys, let's be neighborly. Reduce your emissions.”
Emma Solis Sanchez, 51, said she she hasn’t felt well since that evening of Aug. 4.
“At about 8:30 p.m. I opened the back door to let our five dogs out to do their business, and immediately I knew, oh my God, something is seriously wrong,” she said. “It wasn't just a normal smell…it was extreme.
She's owened a home here since 1998. "It was like something I've never experienced in my 28 years.”
Before she could get her dogs back in the house, the smell wafted inside. Since that night she said she’s felt off. She went to the doctor the next day.
“I said, ‘I, I don't know what it is, but it's not a cold and it's not allergies, but it's something,’ you know? At that time, we didn't know any details [about what happened at Marathon.]”
She too called the refinery the night of the incident. A security guard picked up and told her, "We're working on it.” She was among residents who spoke out about the Marathon incident during the September 1, El Paso City Council meeting.
“August 4th was the last straw for me,” she said. “They did not evacuate us. And the weeks after, nobody came. They should have sent someone from the refinery, representatives door-knocking, to let us know what happened, or a press release or even a flyer,” Sanchez said.
She’s among more than 100 families suing Marathon Petroleum seeking answers and accountability.
“There were at least 15 tons of pollutants and chemicals that were released outside of the Marathon perimeter,” said Attorney Daisy Chaparro with Tawney, Acosta & Chaparro P.C., the law firm representing residents.
Chaparro said neighbors near Marathon's refinery reported the pollutant leak caused health issues including “headaches, nausea, vomiting, throat irritation for some of them, depending on whether they had pre-existing conditions or were in a more at-risk class.”
Some residents went to the hospital. Others stayed at hotels because they didn’t think their homes were safe for their kids or themselves due to the pollutants Chaparro said.
El Paso County Commissioner David Stout said he heard about the problems the night of the chemical leak. “There were accounts of blaring sirens keeping people awake, folks feeling lightheaded, getting sick, vomiting, individuals even talking about having to leave their homes because of the strong odor.”
Stout and City Council member Josh Acevedo, texted Marathon spokesman VJ Smith the evening of the Aug. 4 incident just before midnight asking for answers.
Smith wrote back that the situation was being handled and air monitoring had been deployed stating: “they had "not detected any readings that indicate health risks."
The next day Stout followed up and received an update from Smith saying “Due to unanticipated operating conditions last night, odors from liquid hydrocarbons were released from one of our storage tanks, resulting in sulfur odors beyond our fence line.”
Stout said he was deeply concerned about the company’s lack of transparency and pressed Smith. “I said, ‘Well, what is the definition of an unanticipated operating condition? And he said ‘We don't typically provide details on our operations beyond any regulatory filings.’ “And so they're refusing to tell us what went wrong,” Stout said.
Local, state, and federal elected officials are among those demanding answers.
U.S. Rep. Veronica Escobar (D-El Paso) sent a letter Aug. 12 to the Environmental Protection Agency’s Administrator urging the EPA to launch an investigation into the incident.
Escobar asked in her letter if Marathon violated any federal rules including the Clean Air Act or its Title V permit. She also asked when Marathon notified EPA and TCEQ, what information it provided and whether the company followed a risk management plan that would be triggered by the release of 1,3-Butadiene.
Texas state Senator Cesar Blanco who represents El Paso sent a letter to the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality on August 27th, seeking answers about why the refinery’s final report was so different from the initial information provided.
“The final reports indicate approximately 15.4 tons of pollutants were released across the reported incidents, with one event continuing for more than 68 hours and involving a broader range of contaminants than initially reported,” he wrote to the TCEQ.
Blanco said he recognized that initial emissions estimates are preliminary. “However, the scale of these changes raises an important question about whether our current notification framework provides communities with sufficient information while an event is still unfolding.”
El Paso City Council Representative Josh Acevedo who represents part of Central El Paso held several community meetings to hear from residents who live near the refinery.
“There is a number that is really haunting me right now,” Acevedo saidNineteen pounds of 1,3-butadiene. It's a carcinogen, and that was let out.”
Nearly a month after the incident following a public outcry and persistent questions from city, county, state and federal officials, Marathon Petroleum announced it would host a public meeting on October 6th at Riverside High School at 6pm.
The statement said officials will discuss the August 4th incident in detail including what substances were released and quantities, results of their investigation and the cause.
It also said Marathon intends to share changes implemented “as a result of the investigation, and finally steps taken to improve community notification.”
Resident Emma Solis Sanchez is among those who plan to attend the meeting. “Enough is enough. We need transparency. We need honesty. We need monthly meetings with them, and we need an alert system.”
