Deer Park Residents Left Waiting as Alert Systems Lagged During Deadly PEMEX Refinery Release

A breakdown in communication between Deer Park officials, the PEMEX refinery and local residents left many people without information after a hazardous chemical release at the facility last week, an incident in which two workers died.

According to officials, an operating unit at the Pemex Deer Park refinery released hydrogen sulfide at 4:40 p.m. on Thursday. Two workers were killed and 35 others were injured.

More than 40 minutes after the release, PEMEX issued an emergency alert through the Community Awareness Emergency Response system. The message, however, referred only to flaring. "We are performing activities that may cause flaring," the company's statement read. "We are taking steps to minimize any noise, light, or smoke associated with this flaring activity. At this time, we are not aware of an impact to the community or our industrial neighbors."

Deer Park Mayor Jerry Mouton said city police were notified of the release at about 5:20 p.m. The public did not learn of the incident until around 6:30 p.m., nearly two hours after it occurred. City officials eventually ordered a shelter-in-place, which remained in effect until roughly 9:30 p.m.

The city's own notification tool, CodeRED, also ran into delays on Thursday. About a day after the incident, Deer Park officials attributed the lag to "technical difficulties" that kept the city from sending emergency notifications through CodeRED's "web-based platform or mobile app."

Luke Metzger, executive director of Environment Texas, told Houston Matters on Monday that the lack of timely information created "a lot of confusion in the community." He suggested that moving to a "more significant alert system," comparable to an AMBER alert, could help. He also called for stronger enforcement: "We shouldn't tolerate it anymore. We need the state, the federal government to come in and force these companies to follow the law. Stop this pollution. Stop these deadly incidents."

Harris County Precinct 2 Commissioner Adrian Garcia also criticized the company on Friday, saying PEMEX was not "prepared to communicate effectively during an emergency." He added: "These communication failures left the community wondering whether they were safe, and that is absolutely unacceptable."

In a statement, PEMEX said it was in "active communication with all responding agencies" throughout the incident.

Officials say the origin of the release remains under investigation.