ITC, a unit of Japanese conglomerate Mitsui & Co., may be facing billions of dollars in damages, penalties and clean-up costs. Every day the ship channel is closed erases $300 million from the local economy, Harris County Commissioner Adrian Garcia said. And that doesn’t take into account what ITC may owe the companies whose chemicals were burned and lost in the fire and subsequent spill.
Owners Notified
Brent Weber, the senior vice president of sales and marketing who’s become the face of ITC’s response, declined to identify the owners of the chemicals, byproducts of the oil-refining process.
“ITC is a storage terminal only so out of respect for our customers’ confidentiality we do not release that information, but, yes, the customers of that product have been notified and we’ve been in constant contact with all of our customers,” Weber said on Friday.
Other entities investigating the incident include the U.S. Chemical Safety Board and the Labor Department’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration. Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton has sued the company for violating air-pollution laws.
Lawmakers may also take ITC leaders to task. State Senator Carol Alvarado wants the company hauled before the Select Committee on Texas Ports that she vice-chairs.
“I’m sure that because of this incident, it’s causing people to pause and maybe rethink some of the infrastructure around” the region, Alvarado said. “Who would have thought that this fire would have caused this ripple effect that is impacting potentially the global market?”