The Dark Side of Texas: Pete Maiden Reports on Corpus Christi's Koch Industries

NOTE: We sent members of the I'm From Rolling Stone cast into the field to document America's eco-disasters. The result is a series of four reports from around the country. See a full-index of their work and tell us what you think here.

B obi Miller needs only to open the door of her home in Corpus Christi, Texas, to see the effects of toxic waste from the Koch West oil refinery. Miller's back yard and car is covered in a thick black sludge, and across the street is the school where she used to teach before a lawsuit revealed that the Koch refinery had released ninety tons of benzene, a highly toxic chemical. Miller and other teachers were often forced to implement a safety procedure called "shelter in place," keeping students inside with the air conditioner off on days when Koch was pumping waste into the air. Today the school's playground is completely deserted: The company bought the property, and children no longer play in the yard.

Before the school closed, Miller would often come home to find her husband, Jim, prone on the couch with a headache. In 2001, Jim was diagnosed with thyroid cancer and had a tumor removed. Today, when he speaks, there is a distinct wheeze, and his breathing is labored. Bobi suffers from sarcoidosis, a disease that causes shortness of breath, persistent coughing and skin rashes. "We've always wondered whether that's from living close to the refineries," she says. "We very often hear the sirens from the refinery, and we don't know what they mean. It's very scary."

Short-term exposure to benzene, a natural part of crude oil and gasoline, can cause drowsiness, dizziness and unconsciousness; long-term effects include leukemia and a decrease in the size of women's ovaries. According to a recent study by the Texas Department of State Health Services, overall birth defects in Corpus Christi from 1996 to 2002 was eighty-four percent higher than the state average.

In 2000, a federal grand jury indicted Koch, now the largest privately run company in the world, on ninety-seven felony counts of violating air-pollution standards at its Koch West refinery in Corpus Christi. According to the Justice Department, the plant released about ninety-one tons of benzene in its liquid-waste streams -- some fifteen times greater than the regulatory limits to the refinery. Koch settled the case for $20 million, pled guilty to one count and maintains that the excessive benzene release was never proven. "All Koch companies strive to operate their facilities in a safe and environmentally responsible manner," says a company spokesman.