The Trump administration has been rolling back environmental protections in the name of “unleashing American energy” — at least the fossil fuel kind. The Environmental Protection Agency has proposed relaxing more than 30 clean air and water regulations, and this spring Congress repealed a Biden-era rule that limited seven hazardous pollutants emitted by oil refineries and chemical plants. 

That has people like Juan Flores concerned about the long-term health impacts. He grew up in the shadow of the country’s largest petrochemical complex, the Houston Ship Channel, in the city of Galena Park, Texas. 

“I've been exposed to refineries all my life,” Flores said. “All you’ve got to do is look in that direction. You see all the smokestacks and everything like that.”

Like many in the area, Flores has roots in the oil industry. His dad worked at Chevron for 20 plus years. 

“My dad always told me, growing up, ‘mijo, don't do what I do,’ so I'm doing the complete opposite of what he did,” Flores said. 

Flores works at Air Alliance Houston, a nonprofit environmental justice group trying to reduce the public health impacts of pollution. He manages the group’s community air monitoring program. A network of sensors placed throughout the area tracks levels of ozone, particulate matter, nitrogen dioxide and other pollutants.

Last year Amnesty International called Galena Park and other so-called fenceline communities surrounding the complex a “sacrifice zone,” where predominantly low-income and minority residents pay a high price for living in a pollution hotspot. The report found that petrochemical companies “routinely flout” permitted limits on air pollution.

“The life expectancy rates here are lower,” Flores said. “The asthma rates are off the charts. The cancer rates are higher. I mean, the closer you are to the refineries, the more it is.”

For Flores, it’s personal. He’s been diagnosed with a blood disorder that can be a precursor to multiple myeloma.

“If you look it up and see what causes myeloma and all these blood cancers, it's too much exposure to benzene and all these VOCs in the area,” Flores said. “Believe me, living here, we’ve got plenty of it.”

Benzene is a natural component of crude oil that’s released into the air during the refining process. It’s one of several VOCs, or volatile organic compounds, linked to cancer.

Flores’s daughter was born with a tumor that required chemotherapy and multiple surgeries.

“I even celebrated her six-month birthday, because I didn't know she was gonna make it past a year,” he said. 

She did make it and turned nine this year.

Flores said he does think about moving.

“But why should we?” he said. “We were here first. This is our community.”

So for now, he stays, working to educate his neighbors on the dangers they face, and giving toxic tours to students, donors and journalists.

Driving around Galena Park he pointed to the baseball fields where kids play near dredge sites and the elementary school he attended as a kid. Flores was in sixth grade when, in 1989, explosions at a Phillips Petroleum Co. plastics plant killed 23 workers and blew out the windows at his school.

He pulled over to check out one of Air Alliance’s monitors, rigged on an old light pole across from a big petroleum products storage terminal. 

“That one reports some of the highest levels of VOCs in the area,” he said. “They're very high here.”

When a guest pointed out the strong chemical smell, Flores shrugged.

“Man, I’m so immune to it,” Flores said. “I can kind of taste it in my mouth a little bit. It's a little sweet, definitely a VOC, maybe even benzene.”

He pulled up the Air Alliance dashboard on his phone and checked the monitor’s readings. 

“It’s actually not bad,” he said. 

The overall air quality index was just 38. Any reading under 51 is considered safe. Levels of particulate matter were higher, in the moderate zone. 

“And this is the VOC level,” he said. “You can see that one really spiked earlier.”

Marketplace reached out to the companies Air Alliance has named as the top three polluters in the area: ExxonMobil, LyondellBasell Industries and Chevron Phillips Chemical. Only Chevron responded with a statement, saying the company continues to “take action to reduce air emissions” and is committed to improving environmental performance.

Flores said he’s a realist. The petrochemical industry employs more than 130,000 people in Texas, including many in his community – and his own father.

“If it wasn't for that, you know, we would have lived a harder life,” he said. “But be good neighbors. You guys are making so much profit. Why not invest and try to make it better?”