FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
March 28, 2019
Harris County Offers ITC Incident Update
(Houston, TX) – Harris County Judge Lina Hidalgo and the Harris County Office of Homeland Security & Emergency Management (HCOHSEM) continue to support response efforts regarding the incident at Intercontinental Terminals Company (ITC) in the City of Deer Park.
As of this afternoon, tank 80-13 has safely been emptied of Toluene. Pumping operations to empty the remaining tanks are ongoing.
Cleanup and monitoring of the water near the incident area continues and the Texas Department of State Health Services recommends that no one eat any species of fish or crab from the ship channel or San Jacinto River north of the State Highway 146 Fred Hartman Bridge. The Houston Ship Channel has reopened for one-way traffic for daytime operations, but the Lynchburg Ferry remains closed to the public.
Harris County Commissioner Precinct 2 parks near the ITC site that have waterfront areas will remain closed to the public until water sample results have come back with safe findings.
Based on current health-related data from multiple sources, the health risk for the general public remains low. Harris County Public Health recommends that those with health concerns contact their healthcare provider or call the Harris Health System’s Ask-My-Nurse helpline (open 8 AM to 8:30 PM, 7 days a week) at 713-634-1110.
Going on to a 12th consecutive day of operations, this is now the second longest period that Harris County has been activated to respond to an incident. The Air Quality Monitoring webpage on the Ready Harris site has had more than 180,000 views of the data compiled from the 2,400+ air sampling points that partner agencies have provided.
Judge Hidalgo reminds residents to go to https://www.readyharris.org/Incidents/Deer-Park-Fire and www.hcphtx.org for additional information.
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MESSAGE ID# 333706073997981