PUBLIC COMMENT MEETING TUESDAY ON JUPITER PROJECT

By John And Barbara

Save RGV from LNG

There's an IMPORTANT public meeting in Brownsville this Tuesday evening (05-28-2019), at 7 p.m. regarding Jupiter's proposed Heavy Condensate Upgrader Facility.

If Jupiter gets the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ) air quality permit it needs to build the facility at our local Port of Brownsville, it will use the permit to help it finance a 650 mile 36-inch diameter oil pipeline it plans to build from West Texas to and possibly beyond the Port.

It will also use the permit to help it finance a Very Large Crude Carrier (VLCC) loading dock 6 miles off our coast, probably extending its oil pipeline to the offshore dock.

If it builds its Heavy Condensate Upgrader Facility at the Port, it will get the condensate from West Texas over the Union Pacific track running through San Antonio and then down through Raymondville, Harlingen, San Benito, Olmito, Rancho Viejo, and Brownsville to the Port. 

Two trains a day, 120 rail tanker cars each, each full of highly flammable and dangerous condensate. It says it will run the trains through 2019 and possibly through 2020 -- until it completes its planned pipeline. But what's to keep it from using both the pipeline AND the trains at the same time?

In addition, it will be loading its hazardous products onto tanker trucks to ship it to local customers and to Mexico etc.

The facility would also include 27 petroleum product and hazardous materials storage tanks with a combined capacity of 4,200,000 barrels of product expandable to 10 million barrels of storage with all the fire and pollution dangers such huge and expandable tank farms bring to the communities around them.

The Msy 28 public meeting will probably be our only chance to ask the Jupiter representatives questions about all the plans they have for our Port and our coast line.

It will also give us a chance to voice our concerns about the way the Port of Brownsville is run with so little concern for the air pollution and dangers such projects will bring to the communities around it, day in and day out, year after year, for the next thirty to fifty years.

For more information about the meeting, go to https://www.facebook.com/events/455217965049344/.

For more information about Jupiter's plans for our small part of the world, go to https://docs.google.com/document/d/10B4YGVtc1fmIOnPBNfDNgpv5ccpfY9SAlrfkJx3Ac-M/edit#heading=h.hwjj972dxqqd

To submit a written comment opposing Jupiter's plans, go to http://org.salsalabs.com/dia/track.jsp?v=2&c=7NFfEC4Qd05bErX2lAplQ9Ph8P4w6n0S Note: You can both submit a written comment AND make a verbal comment at the 05-28-2019 public meeting.

Here's the saveRGVfromLNG newsletter on the event:

Dear Friends & Supporters:

There's another fight coming to the Rio Grande Valley, on top of the three proposed LNG terminals we are already organizing to stop. Big oil wants to bring a massive oil processing, export facility, and pipeline to the Brownsville area. Called Jupiter MLP, the project would pollute our region’s clean air and threaten our waterways with the risk of oil spills.

The Jupiter MLP project is a 670-mile pipeline that would pump up to 1 million barrels per day of crude oil to new storage, export, and processing facility at the Port of Brownsville. The project includes the construction of a crude upgrader facility (a type of refinery) that the Texas Council on Environmental Quality (TCEQ) has acknowledged will result in significant emissions of harmful pollutants and known carcinogens such as carbon monoxide, nitrogen oxides, organic compounds, particulate matter, and sulfur dioxide.

Among the many reasons to oppose this project include air pollution, the threat of tanker spills on marine ecosystems, and the shrimping economy.


On May 28th, the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ) will hold a public meeting to hear residents’ questions and concerns about the proposed Jupiter MLP Brownsville project. At the meeting, you’ll have the chance to learn about the project and make a public comment about its potential impacts. Here's the Facebook event for more information: https://www.facebook.com/events/455217965049344/

Here are more details about the meeting:

WHAT: TCEQ public meeting on the Jupiter MLP Brownsville project
WHEN: Tuesday, May 28th at 7:00 pm
WHERE: Amigoland Event Center 1010 Mexico Boulevard, Brownsville, Texas 78520

Comments can also be submitted electronically at https://www14.tceq.texas.gov/epic/eComment/. The permit number for Jupiter MLP is 147681, and greenhouse gas permit number is GHGPSDTX172.

Or you can use Save RGV from LNG's online form to submit a comment: https://tinyurl.com/y4aqhodb

See you on Tuesday,

Save RGV from LNG