11/01/2024

Pemex Crisis Response Raised Flags for Deer Park Officials Months Before Fatal Chemical Leak

Houston Chronicle | Rebekah F. Ward | Oct. 31, 2024

Pemex Crisis Response Raised Flags for Deer Park Officials Months Before Fatal Chemical Leak

Houston Chronicle | Rebekah F. Ward | Oct. 31, 2024

More than two months before a hydrogen sulfide leak killed two workers and injured dozens more at the Pemex refinery in Deer Park, local officials confronted the company with concerns that it was being “less than transparent” about emergencies. 

Officials had complained in July that Pemex failed to promptly notify the community about a different chemical leak at the plant. Responding to concerns raised by Deer Park's city manager, refinery CEO Guy Hackwell said that “corrective actions are already in motion to ensure this type of delay or mistake does not occur in the future.”

Despite the promise to improve, local officials say another communications failure by Pemex kept residents in the dark on Oct. 10, when the facility started leaking massive amounts of poisonous hydrogen sulfide gas during scheduled maintenance work.

Deer Park residents smelled a rotten egg odor from the release before any information was made public. They scrambled to figure out what was going on, calling loved ones and posting to social media.

Many had no information until Harris County Sheriff Ed Gonzalez posted a tweet on the social media platform X more than two hours after the leak had begun, saying deputies were responding to an “unknown chemical release” at the refinery that had already turned deadly.

Communication delays predated deadly leak

Records obtained under the Texas Public Information Act show that officials had raised concerns months earlier about Pemex's emergency communications.

On July 30, workers at the refinery owned by oil giant Petróleos Mexicanos, known as Pemex, discovered a sulfuric acid leak at their facility at 7:30 a.m. No alert appeared on the industry’s online message board that Ship Channel neighborhoods have come to rely on, set up by the East Harris County Manufacturers Association, until hours later at 1:19 p.m.

David Wade, industrial liaison at the Harris County Fire Marshal's Office, wrote an email to other emergency responders with his concern that Pemex was “nowhere near meeting the industry and EHCMA Best Practice of reporting within 20 minutes.”

“Pemex continues to be less than transparent with incidents on their facility,” Wade wrote. 

Deer Park City Manager James Stokes wrote an email to Pemex’s Hackwell, saying the delayed notice was “very concerning,” even though the leak did not impact the surrounding community.

“If Pemex is slow to respond during a Level 1 event, it gives us diminished confidence of a timely Pemex response to a more critical Level 2 or Level 3 event,” Stokes wrote, describing the different categories of industrial emergencies. Level 1 accidents are expected to present no offsite impacts. 

Hackwell apologized in an email, telling Stokes that he felt “having a timely notification response is important and it is a cadence that we know we need to meet.”

“We are grateful you raised this, and please continue to bring any concerns to our attention.”

Stokes told the Houston Chronicle that Hackwell’s response had been thoughtful, leaving him with the impression that the company had gotten officials’ message about the need to improve their communication timelines. 

But that impression changed on Oct. 10, when Stokes said the company’s response to the deadly hydrogen sulfide leak again “validated these concerns.”

Pemex hydrogen sulfide leak stirs old fears

For Stokes, the company’s response to the October hydrogen sulfide leak echoed earlier errors and prompted grave concerns.

On Oct. 10, Pemex again blew past the 20-minute industry guideline for posting to the “Community Awareness Emergency Response” message board, known as CAER. 

Unlike in July, when its eventual alert noted that “a leak was identified onsite,” the company’s October message gave scant details about the incident.

“We are performing activities that may cause flaring. We are taking steps to minimize any noise, light or smoke associated with this flaring activity,” the message read, giving no indication about the severity of the hydrogen sulfide incident.

Hydrogen sulfide is a poisonous gas that smells like rotten eggs, a byproduct of refining processes. As it dissipates, the gas binds with oxygen to form similarly foul-smelling sulfur dioxide, a less lethal substance that is still dangerous in high doses.

Stokes was also concerned about the company’s slow outreach to Deer Park officials during the deadly October leak.

“Pemex officials took even longer to directly contact city officials about what was happening.  That should have happened immediately after the leak began, given the nature of this event,” he said. 

He added that Pemex reported the October leak to officials as a Level 1 event, the category of event contained to the facility itself, though he said “it clearly had an offsite impact.”

In response to questions about the company’s reaction time to both events, Pemex spokesperson Raveena Moyes, the company's chief financial officer, said the safety of workers and community members was a core value for the company.

“We are actively investigating every aspect of the Oct. 10 event, including the incident itself, the emergency response and our own communications.  Where we can improve our response and our communications, we are committed to making those improvements,” Moyes said. 

Several government agencies are conducting their own investigations, including the U.S. Chemical Safety Board and the Occupational Safety and Health Administration. They have yet to release any conclusions.