The remnants of Tropical Storm Imelda, which dumped as much as 43 inches of rain in some ares of Southeast Texas, contributed to the release of tens of thousands of pounds of toxic air pollutants from area chemical plants and refineries, state records show.

About a dozen facilities in counties affected by the storm reported unauthorized releases from Wednesday through Friday, triggered by electrical outages, the failure of floating roof tanks and equipment malfunctions caused by flooding. Together, these companies reported releasing nearly 100,000 pounds of toxins, including cancer-causing 1,3 butadiene, benzene and ethylene oxide. Most releases were in Harris and Jefferson counties.

While exposure to these chemicals can be harmful, many factors influence whether such incidents affect human health, including wind direction and the duration of the release. So far, the state’s environmental agency said it has not seen any air emissions of concern.

Environmentalists, however, objected when Gov. Greg Abbott on Thursday, suspended dozens of environmental rules related to air pollution, wastewater and fuel standards for vehicles, just as his office did for seven months after Hurricane Harvey in 2017. The Texas Commission on Environmental Quality requested the suspensions, saying the rules “prevent, hinder or delay necessary action in coping with the severe weather and flooding event.” The suspension applies to the counties declared a state of disaster.

By the numbers: 95,000 pounds of toxic pollutants released during Imelda 8.3 million pounds of unauthorized air pollution released during Hurricane Harvey statewide in 2017 5.6 million pounds of unauthorized air pollution released in Harris County during Harvey Sources: Texas Commission on Environmental Quality, Chronicle research

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Environmentalists said Abbott’s move was overly broad and “ill-conceived.”

“Texas has more natural disasters than any other state in the union,” Adrian Shelley, director of the consumer advocacy group Public Citizen’s Texas office, wrote in a letter to Abbott asking him to rescind the suspension. “Texas also has one of the highest concentrations of industrial facilities anywhere in the world. When people live near industrial activity, as they do in Texas, great care must be taken to protect their health and well-being.”

When a storm like Imelda strikes, refineries and other chemical facilities are especially vulnerable. Flooding can cause equipment to malfunction, lightning can lead to power outages, and plants may have to shut a unit down in advance as a precaution. All of this can lead to the release of harmful pollutants.

The largest emission attributed specifically to Imelda was was reported by Exxon Mobil in Beaumont, which released more than 36,000 pounds of pollutants, including about 1,000 pounds each of benzene and of 1,3 butadiene over 24 hours. In its initial report to the TCEQ, the plant said the storm caused a process unit compressor to trip, which compelled employees to shut down a unit.

Exxon Mobil’s Baytown refinery released 5,300 pounds of volatile organic compounds over 48 hours when the storm caused a floating roof to fail, which was a big issue during Harvey, the company reported.

These are preliminary totals. Companies have 24 hours to notify the state of unauthorized emissions events and two weeks to submit final reports in which the quantities can be revised.

While Imelda was disruptive for many, such storms can be especially challenging for chemical plants, especially those in a flood plain, said Corey Williams of Air Alliance Houston.

“For me and you, the power goes out and we have to reset the clock on the microwave,” he said. “For these huge facilities, when they lose power, they have massive chemical reactions going on that are paused or stopped in a dangerous place, and they have to dump these chemicals to start the process over.”

This can result in flaring, a method used to burn excess material to avoid explosions or other complications, but it also means releasing some toxic pollutants into the air.

“And if the wind is right, it will blow into the very community (the companies) are trying to protect,” said John Beard, who retired from Exxon Mobil after 38 years and now chairs the Port Arthur Community Action Network.

Members of the mostly lower- to middle-income community who live close to the Exxon Mobil plant in Beaumont suffer from respiratory illnesses, allergies and headaches, he said.

When they hear what sounds like jet engines taking off and see the sky lit up by flares, “you may not know exactly what’s going on,” said Beard, a second-generation refinery worker, “but you know there’s going to be something.”

Companies try to prepare ahead of a storm. They conduct drills and do pre-emptive inspections as part of their emergency preparedness plans, Jeremy Eikenberry, a spokesman for Exxon Mobil, wrote in an email.

Williams said he worries when he sees reports of releases of unspecified volatile organic compounds, which include a variety of chemicals, and hydrocarbons such as methane and propane. These substances can have serious health effects and contribute to greenhouse emissions, which contribute to global warming. They can also develop into secondary pollution like formaldehyde, he said, which is also a carcinogen.

“The irony,” he added, “is that there’s a general opinion among climatologists and other scientists that storm intensity is getting worse as a result of climate change, and one of the impacts of the storms in our region is the emission of chemicals that contribute to climate change and greenhouse emissions.”

In Harris County, one of the most significant releases was from a Bayport plant, Ineos Styrolution America LLC. A lightning strike caused an area power outage that led to the emission of more than 200 pounds, or about 30 gallons, of benzene over 15 hours.

Beyond the numbers, the impact of emissions depends on factors such as the type of chemical released, wind direction, what’s around it and for how long, experts say.

“To put the release from this event in perspective, you might visualize a trash bag full of benzene, 200 feet in the air and a mile away from the nearest home, evaporating away over 15 hours,” said Matt Van Vleck with Harris County Pollution Control. “It is unlikely that a release like this would produce a harmful concentration at ground level.”

Still, he said, the county is concerned with unauthorized emissions because each contributes to Harris County’s overall air quality problem.

During Harvey, companies in affected counties emitted about 8.3 million pounds of unauthorized air pollution — including 5.6 million pounds in the Houston area — as a result of the storm, according to an analysis of state data by the Environmental Integrity Project in Austin. In Jefferson County — home to Beaumont and Port Arthur — 2 million pounds were released.

But less is known about what is spilled on land and in the water, said Ilan Levin, associate director of the Environmental Integrity Project. A Houston Chronicle and Associated Press investigation found that there were more than 100 Harvey-related toxic releases — on land, in water and air — and most were never publicized.

While Imelda is not comparable to Harvey, Levin said, “my hope is that the state of Texas and the industry learned important lessons from mistakes that were made before, during and after Hurricane Harvey,” including the need for continued air monitoring, which was severely limited after the 2017 storm.

This time, TCEQ’s air monitoring stations remained online, said Andrew Keese, a spokesman for the agency, although a monitoring station in Beaumont is believed to have been struck by lightning and is being replaced. The agency also did flyovers and used an optical gas imaging camera to monitor air quality.

Latrice Babin, acting director of the Harris County Pollution Control department, said her investigators had planned to do proactive air monitoring after Imelda in the industrial corridor. Instead, they responded to a collision of multiple barges, including one carrying lubricating oil that was grounded on the San Jacinto Waste Pits, a federal Superfund site near Baytown.

The barge has been moved from the site, but officials are still determining whether there was any damage.

Harvey also damaged the cap at the site meant to contain the toxins. which led to very high levels of dioxin. The EPA found 13 of the 41 Superfund sites in Texas had been damaged by the hurricane.

“The problem is that there are so many sources of air pollutants that they can have such large cumulative impact on our region,” said Williams, with Air Alliance. “Just because we have developed this petrochemical economy in the Houston region puts us at an elevated risk whenever a storm comes through.”

And while some companies help neighboring communities by sponsoring scholarships or building parks, people increasingly are concerned about their quality of life, including the future health of their children, Beard said.

“The community understands the importance of jobs and to have gasoline and fuels to live in this modern day,” he said, “but what is the human cost of doing that?”

perla.trevizo@chron.com