PODER's Campaign

Benzene, a carcinogen present in emissions from petroleum storage, was one of the specific chemicals to which residents near the tank farms were exposed, linking it to the health concerns they had been raising. This flyer plainly lays out the technical information and calls for action when government agencies stay silent. The document reflects PODER’s efforts to publish its own materials to help residents understand what was happening in their neighborhood and to make demands grounded in specific hazards.

This item places the East Austin tank farm campaign within the broader national framework of the environmental justice movement. By framing the tank farm as an instance of environmental racism rather than a local zoning dispute, PODER connected its organizing to a national and to a body of analysis that gave residents language for describing what had been done to their neighborhood.

By the time this flyer was produced, five of the six oil companies operating on the tank farm site had agreed to relocate. Exxon’s refusal to do so extended the campaign and prompted PODER and neighboring organizations to escalate their organizing. The flyer documents a moment of escalation, when the campaign shifted from negotiation with multiple companies to sustained public pressure on a single holdout. Exxon signed a relocation agreement with the county attorney in February 1993, and the last tanks were removed the following year.