ANNAVILLE, Texas — Residents of Annaville who live off Interstate 37 had the chance Thursday night to complain about a nearby crude oil tank farm going up in that neighborhood. Nueces County Commissioner Carolyn Vaughn held a town hall meeting.
Many of the residents spoke who spoke with 3News have lived in the area for decades and said they were quite upset for not being involved in any conversation.
Among the concerns discussed Thursday night were dust not being controlled, workers are speeding to and from work and garbage not being collected.
According to Commissioner Carolyn Vaughn, Epic Pipeline purchased 500 acres of land between Violet and Calicoatte when Judge Lloyd Neal was in office for the fractionator they are building. There was no indication that they were going to make a crude storage tank farm in that area.
"They don't advise anybody just go and started building this," Sergio Villarreal said. "I just had a heart attack three months ago, and I can't go outside the house because of all the dusting and all that is happening," Vaughn said.
"Betrayed that's how I feel, if we were notified in time well we would have sold our property and been out of there, for all kinds of reasons mainly our health, and our safety," Cyndy Medina said. "Once a week, twice a week, we're cleaning filters."
"There was no contact, the thing's half-built now. The tank is so close to our house that we can't get to Meadow Lane even if they run it through. If it blows up we're done," David Walker said.
"They own the land, they can do what they wanted to with it, but to me, it's a responsibility of a company to let the neighbors know, and I think that made them so upset that they did not know and we did not know," Vaughn said.
Some of the residents added they want to see a buyout.
According to Epic Pipeline spokesperson, the project is part of a 730-mile pipeline going from New Mexico across Texas to the Port of Corpus Christi.
Once the project is done, the crude will come in and head to the port by pipe, and there will be no more construction.
"We've been in various counties across the state and we've made sure that every place that we've gone we let them know what this project was all about I think there was a feeling that this particular project was something more than it wasn't," director of communications Bruce Kates said. "Felt that Corpus Christi has been growing so much lately that the area is going to be able to handle it."
Epic Pipeline hopes to have the project done by January.
Thursday's meeting was just one of many gatherings.
Epic will come back with a plan for the community in about a month with information to help solve the problem.
If you are a resident from the Calicoatte area and have a question or concern email. carolyn.vaughn@nuecesco.com
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