Hell in Texas

Damage from Hurricane Harvey may have released as much as 2 million pounds of potentially hazardous airborne pollutants from oil refineries and other facilities in the Houston area, according to regulatory filings submitted to the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality.

In some cases, the estimated amounts released vastly exceed legal limits — but the state agency can't confirm how many contaminants have been released because air-quality monitoring stations throughout the area were shut down prior to Harvey's landfall.

  NBC

Why was that?

Oil refineries and other facilities are required to file emissions reports estimating the amount of contaminants released into the air as soon as an event occurs.

Of course, there's no chance they'll underestimate.

The initial estimates "tend to be high," a spokesman for the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality told NBC News.

I bet.

In one of the largest accidental releases, Chevron Phillips Chemical reported that it may have released more than 745,000 pounds of contaminants into the air as it shut down its Cedar Bayou Plant in Baytown, Texas.

[...]

The roof of a tank at the massive Pasadena Terminal, which has 128 tanks holding petroleum products was partially submerged due to heavy rain on Sunday morning. Gasoline spilled out and more than 300,000 pounds of contaminants were released into the air, according to initial estimates by Kinder Morgan.

[...]

ExxonMobil disclosed that hurricane damage at two of its Houston-area refineries may have released 12,000 pounds of contaminants into the air.

[...]

"The extra pollution from the shutdowns and storm damage is a threat to the air we breathe," said Elena Craft, senior health scientist at the Environmental Defense Fund. "By industry's own estimates, we've seen months' worth of harmful pollution released in less than a week."

I'm going to assume airborn pollution will be taken inward with Gulf breezes, covering more area than flood waters.

I wonder what they're going to do to not only mitigate the damage, but to prevent it in the future.

 ...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.