Across the county and off the coast, fossil fuel polluters like Enbridge and Freeport LNG are planning to build major new oil and “natural” gas export facilities, putting residents already suffering from massive amounts of industrial pollution at even greater risk.
Studies clearly show that people living near polluting facilities like those operating and being proposed in Brazoria County often experience a range of negative health impacts, including elevated rates of asthma, lung and heart disease, and cancer. In fact, all of Brazoria County is already in a designated "severe nonattainment” area, meaning it fails to meet national standards for healthy air quality.
But it’s not just our health that’s in jeopardy – it’s our entire way of life. Too often, air and water pollution from fossil fuel facilities destroys coastal ecosystems, wiping out critical habit for threatened and endangered local wildlife, and putting commercial and sport fishing at risk. That hurts our local economy, and puts a critical part of our history and culture on the chopping block.
This is to say nothing of the serious threats to our safety. Not only do our Brazoria County communities constantly face the risk of fires and explosions, but the greenhouse gases that fossil fuels release into the atmosphere are changing the global climate in ways that put coastal communities like ours directly in harm’s way. As storms and hurricanes intensify and sea levels rise, the future of our families is on the line.
While the air pollution and smog that results from fossil fuel facilities impacts nearly every Brazoria County family, it should come as no surprise that our predominantly Black, Indigenous and low-income communities – people who often live and work closest to oil and gas pipelines, plants and terminals – bear the brunt of this assault. Our neighbors who can least afford to suffer are those suffering the most.
Our public officials SHOULD be doing everything in their power to hold fossil fuel polluters accountable. Instead, state and local governments have given Brazoria County polluters more than a BILLION dollars in tax breaks! Meanwhile Texas homeowners have one of the highest property tax rates in the country.
We’ve had more than enough. It’s time to push back hard on fossil fuel polluters and demand that our state and local leaders take action to protect Brazoria County communities. Please sign up to join our campaign to say HELL NO to oil and “natural” gas polluters!
Freeport LNG is one of the world’s largest liquified methane gas export facilities, located on Quintana Island. Originally built in 2008 to import and regasify LNG, the site was converted to an export facility in 2019, making Freeport LNG one of the first exporters of U.S. methane gas.
Freeport LNG has three units that liquify methane gas, called trains, capable of producing up to 15 million tonnes per year (mtpa) of LNG for export. The company is now actively pursuing the addition of a fourth train to expand its total production capacity to 20 mtpa. Freeport LNG has also recently revealed plans to build small docks along the Intracoastal Waterway to supply fuel for ships and to load LNG onto seafaring barges.
Many residents of Quintana Island and nearby Freeport, where a pretreatment facility is located just outside the city limits, suffer from chronic respiratory issues and other health problems with suspected links to Freeport LNG. Neighbors also live with constant noise from facility operations, and have seen a significant decrease in property values.
Despite this, Freeport LNG has received a range of tax abatements from state and local government totaling at least $634 million, including $178 million for the planned expansion.
Local activists and environmental groups have mobilized to fight Freeport LNG’s proposed expansion, concerned about the facility’s negative impacts on air and water quality, coastal ecosystems, and climate change.
Of particular concern is the risk to almost 60 acres of Brazoria County wetlands, which help to protect coastal communities from strong winds and flooding during increasingly-frequent storms. The wetlands also serve as habitat for threatened and endangered species, including the Eastern Black Rail and Whooping Crane.
Opponents also note Freeport LNG’s known violations of air emissions standards, as well as serious safety issues, including the fact that even though Quintana Island is in a very high risk hurricane zone the company has failed to develop emergency management plans that satisfy the concerns of nearby residents. 58 hurricanes have come ashore within 150 miles of Quintana Island since 1930!
With company headquarters in Houston, Freeport LNG is led by founder and CEO Michael Smith, who owns more than 60% of the company, and recently landed on the Forbes list of the richest people in the world. Smith has said he expects to proceed with the facility expansion in early 2023. It has been reported that the expansion would create only 55 permanent new jobs.
A proposed deepwater crude oil export terminal designed to service Very Large Crude Carrier (VLCC) ships, Texas Gulflink would be located 30 miles offshore from Freeport, and would receive crude oil from proposed storage tanks located near Jones Creek via a new 42-mile-long pipeline.
The project, proposed by Sentinel Midstream, has generated opposition both locally and nationally. At risk are nearby fragile wetlands, the Brazos River Watershed (a drinking water supply for thousands of people), and the waters of the Gulf itself. The proposed 700,000-barrel storage tanks near Jones Creek will also subject local residents to around-the-clock carcinogenic emissions.
Located 35 miles offshore from Surfside Beach, the proposed Seaport Oil Terminal (SPOT) is a deepwater crude oil export facility planned by Enbridge and Enterprise Products. The project includes 50 miles of new pipelines that would run through Surfside Beach and connect to a terminal in Oyster Creek. If built, SPOT could load VLCC ships with up to 2 million barrels of crude per day.
SPOT has been and remains the focus of intense opposition from a broad range of environmental advocates and community groups in Brazoria County, who continue to protest the potential negative impacts on the climate, air and water quality, the local economy, and coastal ecosystems.