History: Organized in 1990 in response to Responsible Care. First meeting March 1990.

Number of plants: 15

Number of community members: Approximately 25 + visitors.

Facilitator: Diane Sheridan

Facilitation Associate: Anne Gowan

Contact information: dbsfacilitator@gmail.com or annelgowan@gmail.com

Website: www.deerparkcac.org

Meetings: Monthly except June, July, December. Fourth Mondays from 5:45 – 7:30 pm by Zoom or at City of Deer Park Battleground Golf Course Republic Grill. Meetings are open but require invitation from member (no one ever turned down).

Goals: 

• Influences industry decision-makers by sharing community questions, concerns and suggestions about plant operations.
• Provides input to the communities from the plants about operations and issues of plant or community concern.
• Provides a mechanism for plants to test ideas/plans before implementation.
• Promotes understanding of and addresses identified community/industry issues that are important to the community.
• Serves as a means to educate the community about the plants and the plants about the community.
• Seeks to involve the entire community, including both youth and senior citizens and people of various backgrounds and opinions.

Most common issues of interest: health, safety, environment, emergency management and communications, hazmat transportation, workforce development.

Most recent issues of interest (chosen in structured Program Planing process):

Annual “state of the plant” reports Annual reports on emissions, including TRI data from 1987 forward.  UTMB 2019 research correlating cancer rates to proximity to refineries, which focuses on BTEX. Prior to inviting researchers to speak, DPCAC is holding meetings about BTEX’s hazards, emissions from DPCAC plants, air monitoring results, and industrial hygiene methods. They learned the factors researchers consider when seeking the cause of cancer, then reviewed Texas Cancer Registry data on Deer Park and Harris County. Then census data were used to characterize the communities with UTMB’s 10- and 30-mile radius from a refinery. Plants will be asked about any cancer studies they have done, and prior studies in Houston Ship Channel communities will be summarized. With this background, DPCAC will assemble a list of questions, then invite the UTMB researchers to speak.

Communications of Lubrizol odor event by plant, cities, county and across county lines Impacts on plants from hurricanes, freezes and COVID  Beltway 8 Bridge expansion and rebuilding  Port of Houston Project 11 Expansion  TRACER weather and air quality study  EHCMA’s new director and strategic plan  Truck safety, traffic and enforcement  Process Safety Management  Risk Management Planning  Tours