Ortiz told The Associated Press that Veolia's project is safe, that there was no need to inform the public about it and that while the city's refineries may cause some health problems, "we all have to die sometime."

Ortiz made the statements in an article detailing the rift between community activists led by Hilton Kelley and Veolia, which has been incinerating the wastewater for more than a week at its Port Arthur facility located at 7769 Texas 73.

Veolia's project is funded by a $49 million federal contract to destroy about 1.8 million gallons of the material shipped from a U.S. Army facility in Indiana.

Company officials have said that the material doesn't pose a health risk. Some residents have protested that they received no advanced warning of the shipments and that the material still is dangerous.

More on the Net: City of Port Arthur Veolia Environmental Services

Ortiz told The Associated Press that there was no need to inform the public beforehand because "there's nothing to be afraid of."

"Why do something about a project that's safe and creating a lot of work?" Ortiz said in the article.

Ortiz said Monday that he informed the city council when Veolia told him of the shipments more than a month ago. The material would be "completely enclosed" during shipping and treatment and pumped into deep monitored wells, he said.

"We've got to realize first of all that there is no VX in the water," Ortiz said during a Monday telephone interview. "All it is that's in there is just a mixture of water and chemicals that makes that thing no stronger than chlorine in your swimming pool."

While people should know about such shipments, telling them would incite unnecessary panic and it is not the city's job to tell them, Ortiz said Monday.

Ortiz also told The Associated Press that Port Arthur's industries are "just something we have to live with."

"I'm going to be 71 in May and I've been breathing this air for fifty-some years," Ortiz told The Associated Press. "I feel fine. Besides, we all have to die sometime."

Ortiz defended that statement Monday, saying that far more dangerous materials than Veolia's shipments pass through Jefferson County daily.

Port Arthur's forefathers intended for the city to be an oil industry town, and the only alternative would be to shut down industry, he said.

That would cut money, jobs and tax base, he said.

"People don't like to be told the truth," Ortiz said. "It's the hard facts of life. There are some things you don't like, but you have to learn to live with them."

Kelley's group, along with the Sierra Club and environmental groups in Indiana and Kentucky, plan to file for an injunction to stop the wastewater truckloads from leaving a U.S. Army facility in Indiana.

The filing could come as early as Tuesday, Lois Kleffman with the Chemical Weapons Working Group, said during a telephone interview Monday.

Ortiz said he won't force the city to choose sides in any litigation.

msmith@beaumontenterprise.com
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