Community Leaders Announce 3 Town Halls on ITC Disaster in Houston Area What: A series of town halls around the greater Houston area have been planned over the next three days to foster community dialogue with academic, scientific and healthcare professionals regarding questions and concerns from the ongoing ITC Disaster at the company's facility near Deer Park, Texas. Community driven town halls are being organized to provide a platform to discuss risk communication, increase transparency and accountability between ITC, elected officials, the Environmental Protection Agency and the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality with affected communities. We aim to: -Inform area residents about the ITC disaster, to assess the short- and long-term human health risk -Discuss the need to improve our statewide compliance and regulatory standards -Create space for dialogue and community representation in industry related decision making -Assess the ecological damage to our coastal region extending to communities, fisheries and wildlife along Galveston Bay and greater Harris County -Discuss contingency plans for present and future incidents focusing on emergency response, disaster management, right-to-know laws and how to be prepared for the next chemical disaster -Long term impacts to the environment, public health, the economy and a loss of confidence in state agencies to protect us will linger for years to come. As such, we are no longer referring to this event as the #ITCfire but recognizing it for what it is, the #ITCdisaster. Who: Hosted by a coalition of community organizations concerned about the ITC Disaster in Deer Park, Texas affecting the greater Houston Area. Those involved include community members, Communities Caring for Pasadena, Sierra Club, Texas Housers, Air Alliance Houston, FIEL, Public Citizen, Indivisible Houston, LULAC, HOME Coalition, Federal Jobs Guarantee, DSA Houston, Houston Climate Movement, Pantsuit Republic Houston, Noyolo Love & Confederacion de Ministerios Cristianos, and Sunrise Movement. Town Hall #1 Pasadena: Iglesia Fuente de Agua Viva, 3335 Watters Pasadena TX 77504 When: 6:30 - 8:30 pm CDT, Friday, March 22, 2019 Town Hall #2 Rice: Rice University, Herring Hall, Room Herring 100 6100 Main St, Houston TX 77005 When: 2 - 4 pm CDT, Saturday, March 23, 2019 Town Hall #3 East End: Talento Bilinguė de Houston, 333 South Jensen Dr. Houston TX 77003 When: 3 - 6 pm CDT, Sunday, March 24, 2019 Seeking truth, transparency, accountability and a contingency plan for today and tomorrow. Contacts: Bryan Parras, bryan.parras@sierraclub.org, 713-303-5811 Zoe Middleton, Zoe@texashousing.org, 231-250-3104 Stephanie Thomas, sthomas@citizen.org, 832-840-6464 #ITCdisaster
댓글