State Rep. Brooks Landgraf on Tuesday said the TCEQ has kept him and Ector County Commissioner Mike Gardner in the loop following a fire last week at a facility that stores chemicals in west Odessa.
Landgraf said the owner of the facility is responsible for remediation efforts and has contractors working to pump out liquids that have pooled up on the Permian Basin Container fire site that burned for almost 24 hours. Landgraf said the owner may be based out of Tyler, Texas, and has been cooperative.
Most of the area has single family homes with businesses, including the one that burned, peppered around it. Most all of the homes are on water wells, which means water samples are not under TCEQ monitoring. Homeowners, Landgraf said, are sending samples to a well-equipped Hobbs, N.M., lab.
The Texas Commission on Environmental Quality has indicated there is more work to do to “understand the significance” of what happened. Landgraf said the TCEQ is monitoring air quality as well as area groundwater and remediation efforts. “As long as the owner is cooperative the TCEQ will simply monitor the cleanup.”
He said so far the air quality levels are considered “nuisance.”
Landgraf and Gardner have met with affected residents and inspected water in nearby homes that has discoloration. “It’s taking time to get those water test results back,” Landgraf added.
Landgraf praised first responders as well as the West Texas Food Bank for providing bottled water to affected Odessans. He said the water is located at 715 W. 81st St.
He said it is unclear what all was stored at the site but said huge plastic containers were stored there as much as seven or eight containers high. “Nearby residents have said the business has only been there for two or three years.”
A “chemical odor” has been detected at a runoff pond that has formed on the PBC site. The responsible party’s remediation contractor expects to have the runoff pond pumped out by the middle of the week, Landgraf said.
Complaints about H2S leaking from the PBC site have been investigated, and readings from handheld air monitoring equipment did not detect the presence of H2S originating from the PBC site.
