Harris County v. Arkema, Inc.

Harris County Attorney Christian D. Menefee announced that the County had settled a lawsuit it brought against a chemical company (Arkema, Inc.) after a fire broke out at the company’s facility during Hurricane Harvey in 2017. The County alleged that the company violated local floodplain regulations and state air and water laws. The $1.1 million settlement required implementation of safety and flood mitigation measures and payment of funds that will go to the County’s general fund and be allocated through the Commissioners Court. The County Attorney’s announcement said the company had constructed a large detention pond, reinforced buildings to withstand flooding, and raised generators out of the floodplain, while also upgrading fire safety to meet current standards. The settlement also required that the company obtain fire safety and flood management permits before operations resume, and that significant releases of pollutants be reported within two hours. The County Attorney stated that “[a]s we continue to face the realities of climate change and the increasing frequency of severe weather events, it’s crucial that facilities housing hazardous materials are thinking about disaster preparedness plans. This settlement with Arkema sets a precedent for how we expect companies to operate and communicate during crises.”

Harris County, Texas, filed a petition in state court against Arkema, Inc. alleging, among other things, that a chemical manufacturing facility owned and operated by Arkema did not have required permits under the County’s Floodplain Regulations for one or more structures that sit beneath base flood elevation. As a result of Hurricane Harvey, the facility flooded, causing its primary and backup power to go offline. The County alleged that without refrigeration, the temperatures of certain organic peroxides manufactured at the facility increased to their “self-accelerating decomposition temperatures,” the point at which the chemicals begin a “chemical decomposition process that leads to rapid burning,” leading to fires and unauthorized air emissions. The flooding also resulted in industrial wastewater overflowing wastewater tanks and their containment dikes. The County asserted that Arkema had violated the Texas Clean Air Act and the Texas Water Code. The County sought civil penalties, response costs, and injunctive relief, including ordering an independent third-party audit of the facility’s disaster preparedness and implementation of the auditor’s recommendations and ordering Arkema to obtain all required permits under the Floodplain Regulations.

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