Refinery’s Request For Air Permit Renewal Largely Goes Unnoticed

EL PASO, TX – Western Refining has requested the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ) to renew the air quality permit for it’s oil refinery in central El Paso.

Unlike the outcries and protests surrounding ASARCO’s request to have the air permit for it’s copper smelter in west El Paso, Western Refining’s request has largely gone unnoticed.

The Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now (ACORN), which has led the fight against ASARCO, has not publicly denounced the oil refinery.

“We see that a lot of industrial and commercial ventures are located right next to low-income communities,” said a representative of ACORN when asked to comment on the situation with Western Refining. The organization will now have a little more than a week to decide if they will request a public hearing, added the representative.

Some of the refinery’s members in Central have not had any problems with the refinery either. “You’ve got to love thy neighbor as thyself,” said Soledad Ramirez, who has lived next door to the refinery for more than 50 years. “I’ve never had any problems with them.”

Officials with TCEQ tell ABC-7 the request for an air quality permit by both companies will involve entirely different processes.

Ramirez said Western Refining has helped neighborhood residents and she is more interested in what the refinery brings to the community instead of what they do to the air. “They help the people…they give us vaccinations and injections,” she said.

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Written and reported for broadcast by Martin Bartlett

Written for the web by Joe Villasana