A Sea of Oil

 

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Safety objects from a family collection of a petrochemical plant worker


Work Safely or Not at All
There is Always Time to Do it Right
If it's Worth Doing, Do it Better
-Chevron Phillips Chemical Company, LP


Last summer, in Baytown, Texas, the Chevron Phillips Cedar Bayou plant staged their annual "Summer of Safety" campaign, this time hiring an ice cream truck to drive around the plastics plant to distribute free ice cream. Employees rushed out of meetings to line up at the truck. This distraction was staged for a reason. The City of Baytown's motto is "Where oil and water really do mix". Many workers at this plant live in nearby Mont Belvieu, a town moved two miles east after an industrial explosion in 1985. That accident seriously damaged the natural salt dome beneath the town where liquid propane was stored, and chemicals began seeping into homes.

A Sea of Oil focuses on ways that the petrochemical industry intersects with everyday life in Southeast and Central Texas.





Chemical pipelines cross suburban Baytown, Texas





Concept sketch, click for larger image