Marine Chemist

Objectives: (1) Determine the effects of the waste waters on marine life: (2) Encourage corrections to pollution problems. Procedures; (1) Collect waste water samples from refinery's outfall and analyze for toxic compounds; (2) Run bio-assay to determine the effects of the wastes on fish life. Findings: The small Texas Company Refinery at Port Neches should not be confused with its large parent Texas Company Refinery at Port Arthur. The Port Neches refinery manufactures mostly asphalt products. Approximately 1000 gallons of waste waters per minute are discharged into the Neches River by the Texas Company Refinery. Most of the oils are removed from the waste before it reaches the Neches River. The waste water was black in appearance and had a strong hydro-carbon odor. Although chemical analysis revealed no specific toxic compound in very high concentrations, fish only survived a few minutes in low concentrations of the waste. See Tables 1 and 2 for chemical and toxilogical data. Comments: Texas Company pledged their full co-operation with the state in pollution control work. Pollution work in other areas prevented us from making a more thorough survey of the Texas Company Refinery. We feel the Texas Company will be more cautious of their pollution problems in the future