{"id":1757,"date":"2011-11-15T10:34:13","date_gmt":"2011-11-15T16:34:13","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/?p=1757"},"modified":"2011-11-16T11:33:16","modified_gmt":"2011-11-16T17:33:16","slug":"a-child-of-refinery-row-looks-back","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/2011\/11\/15\/a-child-of-refinery-row-looks-back\/","title":{"rendered":"A Child of Refinery Row Looks Back"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Photo by Teresa Vieira\/KUT News<\/p>

Several pipelines run underneath the Dona Park neighborhood in Corpus Christi.<\/p><\/div>\n

What’s it like growing up surrounded by refineries in Corpus Christi?<\/p>\n

A commenter on one of our stories<\/a> about Refinery Row, Iris Gonzales Hinojosa, writes about her childhood among the refinery stacks:<\/p>\n

“I grew up in Dona park,\u00a0specifically\u00a0on Vernon Drive, and many of my childhood memories include Mom and Dad, closing our home’s windows to run the air conditions because breathing the air was so unbearable.<\/p>\n

I also remember our cars being covered with refinery by-products dust and grime.\u00a0 Another image etched in my mind is being woken up at\u00a0various hours\u00a0in the night\/morning by the sound of the refineries burning off product. When I looked outside from our den, the\u00a0flares so significant that they would light up the night’s sky a bright orange.<\/p>\n

Even as an adult now when I return home to visit my parents, I notice that my eyes burn and tear up. If I stay a more than a weekend, my skin is impacted in acne breakouts and I develop phelgm in my lungs.<\/p>\n

It pains me that my parents and families that I’ve grown up with continue to live in the Dona Park area versus moving to improve their quality of life and to cease exposing themselves to the on-going pollution, but I understand their reasons. It is a matter of priniciples and ethics.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

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