Residents of Texas neighborhood get their time with EPA

November 28, 2007 - "I always thought something was being done about the contamination that exists here," said resident Jose Chavez. But after getting throat cancer, he realized this was not true, he said. Chavez asked the representatives from the Environmental Protection Agency to do more.

The EPA hearing in the eastside neighborhood of Manchester on Tuesday drew more than 50 speakers. The EPA asked speakers to come forward in pairs, leading to strange duos like Chavez and the lawyer, Jeff Holmstead.

There were other dramatic moments. One woman said she had just started chemotherapy that very morning. She blamed benzene and other toxic chemicals for her leukemia. Another woman broke down, saying her sister, who had lymphoma and grew up near the Houston Ship Channel, was a human being, not an "acceptable health risk." There was talk about "environmental justice" for "fence-line communities," the neighborhoods where people live just blocks from towering petroleum refineries.

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