By DINA ARÉVALO
Port Isabel-South Padre Press
editor@portisabelsouthpadre.com
By DINA ARÉVALO
Port Isabel-South Padre Press
editor@portisabelsouthpadre.com
An image of the aftermath of an explosion at an LNG facility is shown on a projection screen as Sierra Club member Stefanie Herwick lists concerns with several such plants that may be built in the Laguna Madre region. (Staff photo by Dina Arevalo).
Approximately 60 people crowded into a dimly lit room inside the South Padre Island Birding Center for a presentation by the group Save RGV from LNG. On a projection screen at the front of the room was a slide that showed two images. The top featured a child playing in the surf with the words “This is South Padre Island.” The bottom image depicted another child using an asthma inhaler. The words “This is not” were printed below.
The group was meeting to discuss six companies that are currently seeking to build liquefied natural gas facilities just outside the Port Isabel city limits. The facilities would chill fracked natural gas, turning it into a liquid that could then be loaded onto transport vessels and shipped across the globe. The worry is that the chemicals used in the liquefaction of the gas would cause intense polluting of the Laguna Madre, including the almost 1,400 “greenfield” acres near the Bahia Grande region where the facilities would be built.
“People were underestimating the severity, the magnitude of these projects. They are projects like we haven’t seen before, in terms of the pollution, in terms of the footprint, in terms of the heightened risk that are associated with it,” said Stefani Herweck, a member of the Sierra Club who delivered an hour-long presentation on the potential risks of the facilities.
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