Fumed
AN INVESTIGATIVE PODCAST FROM PUBLIC HEALTH WATCH
Fumed is about the people who live in the shadows of America’s chemical plants and oil refineries.
This season, two stubborn Texans try to salvage what’s left of their working-class community. That’s a problem, though, because they live in East Harris County, where the petrochemical industry calls the shots — and where pushing back can be dangerous.
CHANNELVIEW, TX
15 MINUTES EAST OF HOUSTON
Set in Channelview, Texas, in the heart of the nation's petrochemical industry, Fumed follows Carolyn Stone and Greg Moss as they risk everything to fight for their community’s future.
NOT YOUR TYPICAL ENVIRONMENTAL ACTIVISTS
Carolyn Stone and Greg Moss definitely aren’t your typical environmental activists. Both have personal ties to the petrochemical industry. Both own guns. Neither trusts the government.
Channelview
Channelview, Texas, was once a quiet refuge for people trying to avoid the more industrialized areas in east Harris County. But then barges moved in, searching for places to park near the Houston Ship Channel’s petrochemical plants.
River Bottom
Greg Moss thought the I-10 bridge would protect his North Channelview neighborhood, known as the River Bottom, from becoming a parking lot for chemical barges. But barges — and the dredging needed to make space for them — have arrived, despite the dangers posed by a nearby Superfund Site.
South Channelview
Since Carolyn Stone moved to South Channelview in 1988, barge companies have bought up most of the riverfront property. K-Solv, a barge-cleaning and chemical distribution company, has had two fires. A TCEQ air monitor has recorded high concentrations of benzene, a carcinogen, in the area since 2008.