After 15 tons of refinery pollutants, Texas neighbors head to Marathon meeting for answers

El Paso residents living near the Marathon Refinery wanted real accountability after a toxic release blanketed their neighborhood this summer.

Instead, many left this week's public meeting with more questions than answers after a flare-up sent more than 15 tons of pollutants into the air, leaving nearby residents with irritated eyes, nausea, and a strong smell.

Here's what to know

According to KVIA, early accounts of the August 4 Marathon Refinery incident put total emissions at more than 15 tons. The Texas Commission on Environmental Quality said 20 air contaminant compounds were released, including about 4,000 pounds of carbon monoxide, upward of 1,000 pounds of sulfur dioxide, and more than 10,000 pounds of propylene.

The El Paso Hispanic Chamber said the forum would cover air-monitoring results, operational changes, improvements to community notification, and more information about the contaminant release. Marathon officials held the meeting on October 6 at Riverside High School, where they spent nearly an hour detailing what they called an "odor event."

Among attendees were Connie and Josie Hernandez, sisters who have lived in El Paso for more than 60 years and live a few blocks from the refinery. They said they wanted transparency, while other nearby residents have also described irritated eyes, nausea, and a strong smell during the flare-up.

Neighbors closest to the refinery said they were outside when the flare occurred and did not understand the scale of the release at the time. Josie Hernandez told ABC-7 that she and her sister first noticed the flare while doing yard work.

Josie Hernandez said learning what was in the fumes has left the sisters worried about their health, especially because they believe they inhale pollution from the refinery every day.

What's being done?

At Tuesday's meeting, Marathon officials spent nearly an hour walking residents through the investigation's findings, though many in attendance said the event fell short of the accountability they'd hoped for. City Representative Josh Acevedo said, "I had very low expectations for tonight, and it didn't even meet that."

Residents had pushed for concrete safety commitments. Josie Hernandez said, "I'm hoping that this meeting will bring some sort of commitment, accountability from them to place safety features. Because it's our lives, it's our lives, and I think most of us did not realize that until this big flare up happened."

But not everyone left satisfied. "We know that nothing's really going to happen, they keep saying if it happens again, it's going to happen again. We know it's going to happen again," Chris Telles said. Marathon declined an interview with ABC-7 before Tuesday's meeting.

"I noticed that the flame was like really roaring, and I called Connie and I said 'Look at this thing!'" Josie Hernandez explained. "It was dark with the orange flame and it was really nasty looking, but I didn't know what had happened until I heard the news later on that night. So when I found out, I said 'Gee, that's a lot of stuff that we ingested' and we're like maybe three blocks away from it."

Where can I learn more?

The Marathon flare-up is one example of the pollution concerns communities near oil and gas facilities have been raising for years. These stories look at refinery expansion disputes, toxic leaks, and the health toll of dirty air in Texas and beyond.

• In Channelview, residents fought a refinery expansion plan they said threatened neighborhood safety.

• Across Texas, officials confronted an abandoned oil well spewing toxic wastewater onto rural land.

• New evidence tied oil and gas pollution to asthma, early deaths, and illness.

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