Hurricane Rita's predicted path to the Texas Coast has shut down much of the nation's petrochemical business, including facilities operated by Western Pennsylvania companies.
With roughly 16 operating refineries and a quarter of the country's refining capacity, the Texas coast is at the center of the petrochemical universe. More than 160 chemical plants representing half the nation's chemical production capacity is located in that region, according to the trade group American Chemical Council.
"Texas is the center of the petrochemical industry," said Charles Van Vlack, executive vice president of the chemical council. "Six to eight of the industry's building blocks, like chlorine and polyethylene, are manufactured along the Texas Coast."
Ethylene oxide, polyethylene and ethanolamines aren't household names, but the products that are made from those compounds include such things as liquid detergents, pharmaceuticals, printing ink, soaps, detergents, cosmetics, and plastic wraps, trays and bottles.
Major local companies with substantial Texas operations have evacuated, shut down or at least sharply curtailed production in their Texas plants.
Nova Chemical, a Canadian company with executive offices in Moon Township, shut down and evacuated its huge Bayport, Texas, plant, located some 10 miles southeast of Houston. The facility produces some 1.7 billion pounds annually of styrene, used to make polystyrene which, in turn, is molded into packaging.
"By midday Thursday, we had shut down the Bayport plant and evacuated 150 employees and contract personnel," said Nova spokeswoman Stephanie Franken.
PPG has a number of facilities in the Houston area, including a chemical plant in La Porte, and a huge chemical complex in Lake Charles in southwest Louisiana, employing 200 and 1,400, respectively.
"Both facilities are shut down, but are being manned by skeleton crews that will ride out the storm," said PPG spokesman Jeff Worden. "Two architectural coatings (paint) plants, in Waller northwest of Houston and in Houston proper, have been shut down and evacuated."
In addition, PPG closed 18 paints stores in the Houston area and a PPG Auto Glass warehouse that was shuttered and evacuated Thursday. Of the facility's 12 employees, two recently had transferred to Houston from New Orleans, chased from Louisiana by Hurricane Katrina.
Alcoa announced Thursday that Hurricane Rita would have a negative impact on its third-quarter financial results, due to the closure of its Point Comfort, Texas, alumina refinery southwest of Houston, and its Lake Charles anode facility, near the western edge of Louisiana.
Experts said the petrochemical plants are designed to withstand hurricane-force winds, but that floodwater could prove to be a much bigger problem.
"The chemical plants are designed for high winds, but are not as well prepared for flooding," said Gary Powers, a Carnegie Mellon University chemical engineering professor. "If there is flooding, there could be some nasty chemicals released."
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