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Ector County residents sue over chemical fire they say has contaminated the area

Permian Basin Containers caught fire last week and burned for days. Now the Texas Commission of Environmental Quality are investigation if any harmful chemicals were released.
Courtesy of State Rep. Brooks Landgraf
Permian Basin Containers caught fire last week and burned for days. Now the Texas Commission of Environmental Quality are investigation if any harmful chemicals were released.

After a fire erupted at an industrial facility on the outskirts of Odessa earlier this summer, some nearby residents are now suing over the environmental contamination they say it鈥檚 causing.

Earlier this week, 19 Ector County residents and one business filed a lawsuit against the owners of Permian Basin Containers, . The massive blaze burned for days, which the lawsuit says caused widespread pollution and created a 鈥渘oxious smell鈥 that permeated the surrounding area.

The lawsuit alleges that the way Permian Basin Containers was operated was negligent, claiming the facility improperly stored toxic chemicals, which residents claim eventually led to the fire. In a press release, Mark Rodriguez, who lives near the facility with his family, described the conditions they鈥檝e faced since the fire.

"Everything smells like petroleum," said Rodriguez. "We just paid off the house not even a year ago but now we're in a contract to buy a new house because I can't go back."

The lawsuit aims to force the owners of Permian Basin Containers to clean up the site and the contamination it caused as well as conduct environmental testing and provide safe drinking water to residents. On top of that, residents are also seeking millions of dollars in damages.

In their initial court filings, the attorneys representing the Ector County residents said their clients 鈥渃annot live in their residences, cannot access safe potable water, and cannot live in an environment where their health is in grave danger.鈥

At first, local officials stated they did not believe any dangerous chemicals were being released by the fire. However, according to court documents, residents say fumes from the facility 鈥渃aused eyes to burn and tear up鈥 and that some people 鈥渆xperienced headaches and nausea, as well as strange sensations in their nose and throat.鈥

According to the lawsuit, the fire also left behind a 鈥渃hemical soup鈥 that is believed to be a combination of the water used to extinguish the blaze and the chemicals stored at Permian Basin Containers.

In court documents, lawyers described an 鈥渙range and black slick, more than a foot deep鈥 that spread across the area surrounding the facility and 鈥渋nto homes and cars.鈥 They say this mixture coated 鈥渆verything in between, eventually morphing into a ubiquitous black sludge鈥 and has 鈥渟tarted killing vegetation.鈥

Now, residents worry this mixture is contaminating local groundwater. In this area, many rely on private wells for their drinking water and the lawsuit claims recent soil and water testing has found toxic chemicals like acetone, benzene and xylene.

The Texas Commission on Environmental Quality is currently conducting an investigation into the pollution caused by the Permian Basin Containers fire, but has not released any further information.

Permian Basin Containers and officials with the company have not responded to a request for comment.
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