Understanding and Reducing Risk: Developing impact statements, assessing risk, and determining offsite consequences for a residential neighborhood in close proximity to large, peak shaving propane facilities and their pipeline systems

About the Community

The Southwest Crossing Community Initiative (SWCCI) represents a vibrant residential neighborhood located on the southwest side of Houston, Texas. Home to approximately 2,000 residents, the community includes 402 single-family homes, 10 schools, and 8 houses of worship. Established in the 1980s, Southwest Crossing has flourished as a safe, welcoming, and multigenerational neighborhood. Many residents have spent decades building their lives here—raising families, paying off mortgages, and now enjoying their retirement years. The community is proudly diverse, with a majority of Black and Brown residents, and is united by a strong sense of ownership, pride, and commitment to collective well-being.

Thriving Earth Exchange Partnership

We partnered with Thriving Earth Exchange to gather critical information that residents urgently need. Our goal was to launch a comprehensive study of the risks and impacts facing our community, particularly those related to nearby industrial infrastructure. Through this collaboration, we hoped to better understand how to mitigate these risks and develop strategies to prepare for potential disasters, ensuring the long-term safety and resilience of our neighborhood.

History of SWC Engagement with the Problem

Since 2021, when CenterPoint Energy notified us of the Lantana Point Reserve facility siting  in SWC within 500 feet of SWC homes, we met local and State elected officials, CenterPoint representatives, and Railroad Commission of Texas representatives.  We appealed to the Texas Sunset Advisory Commission to shutter and remove the facility as well as the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ) officials who issue permits for these facilities.  We also developed a community website and a YouTube Channel; started an online petition and a funding campaign; and we continue to be featured on local news channels and websites. 

• Southwest Crossing Website:  https://swcrossingoutreach.wixsite.com/houston   
• Southwest Crossing YouTube Channel:  https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLwg8H1rKteO4Mx7vI2MckdCR_xXjv52f7 

In 2023, with support from State Senator Borris L. Miles and State Representative Alma Allen, we submitted five proposals to the 88th Texas Legislature. These proposals called for improvements in notification requirements, safety regulations, proximity restrictions for hazardous materials, zoning laws, and state-level transparency and communication protocols.

The Project as it was Planned 

Aims

We will use the findings from three studies to: 

1. Inform the residents of SWC and Southwest Houston 
2. Help city, state and national officials to recognize and adhere to our study recommendations 
3. Work with city, state, and national elected officials to prevent similar sitings of these types of facilities from happening in the future. 
4. Advance legal and political actions for the relocation of Lantana Point. 

Activities

We plan to work with scientists/specialists and conduct several ​​​​studies including: 

• ​​​Impacts Analysis to understand the economic, aesthetic, social, health and environmental impacts of the facility.   
• Probabilistic Risk Assessment & Offsite Consequence Analysis to address our safety concerns.

In the future we are interested in conducting additional studies including: 

• Disaster Risk Reduction Study to analyze and reduce the causal factors of disaster from offsite consequences from an accident at Lantana and or Pecan Point facilities. 
• An Emergency Management Study to prepare us in the advent of a disaster.

Actors

In addition to the Community co-Leads listed below, a ​​cohort of 4-6 community residents will work in collaboration with scientists/specialists during the project period. Target Audiences include: 

• Southwest Crossing Community Residents 
• Southwest Community Residents 
• Super Neighborhood 41 
• Texas Southern University Bullard Center for Environmental Justice 
• Houston Independent School District & area schools (10 schools) 
• Area houses of worship (7) 
• Gas filling stations (within 500 ft of Lantana Point) 
• City & State Officials (including Houston Fire Department) 
• CenterPoint Energy 
• Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ) 
• Railroad Commission of Texas  
• Granting agencies (for future funding) 
• Legal counsel 

Deliverables

• National Environmental Policy Act Impacts Analysis and Report 
• Probabilistic Risk Assessment & Offsite Consequence Analysis and Report

Outcomes 

Completion Date: See scientist/specialist descriptions below. The entire project will be completed by Fall 2024. 

Anticipated Community Benefits

1. Ability to make decisions about their personal health and safety with trustworthy data collected and co-authored by the community.
2. Applying findings to ongoing legal and political actions to protect the community and others like it.
3. Data relevant to understanding the extent and nature of the grave risks the Lantana Point Reserve presents to residents.
4. A knowledgebase of research processes for activists who want to launch new studies in the future to protect and advocate for the community.
5. Generating data necessary to initiate and complete a second phase study for disaster risk reduction and emergency management.

Impact 

While the overall aims of this study are to identify risks to the community as well as to explore what is necessary to keep community members as safe as possible in worst case scenarios, our top priority is to force the closure and relocation of Lantana Point.  Furthermore, we are working with our state representatives to change Texas state law to prevent these types of dangerous facilities from being built within the range of residents and workers in the future. 

Timeline and Milestones 

The Project as it Happened

The project began with the match process through Thriving Earth Exchange, which successfully connected the Southwest Crossing Community Initiative (SWCCI) with researchers who shared our concerns and commitment to environmental justice. We held regular planning meetings with our matched scientists, establishing clear goals and shared expectations from the start.

As the project progressed, we identified and brought in additional organizations whose expertise and values aligned with our mission—such as PSE Healthy Energy and Coalition for Community Organizations (COCO). These new partnerships helped expand our technical capacity and deepen our outreach.

One of the major milestones was organizing and implementing the CASPER study, which required gathering support from residents and coordinating community volunteers to conduct door-to-door surveys. This was a deeply participatory process that helped build trust and local engagement.

In parallel, we held a series of community meetings to share information, answer questions, and strategize. We also engaged directly with local government by attending and presenting at Houston City Council meetings, advocating for safer siting practices and transparency.

Our efforts extended beyond Houston through presentations at AGU and participation in national meetings, helping us build new alliances and raise awareness of our local struggle on a broader scale.

We also maintained visibility through media appearances, which helped amplify our message and attract new supporters.

While we stayed true to our original goals, we adapted by expanding our network and incorporating new lines of inquiry—allowing the project to grow in both reach and impact.

Project Outputs

• Community Factsheets – Introduced by PSE Healthy Energy and tailored to local needs, these factsheets provided accessible, science-based information about the facility and were distributed throughout the community.
  • PSE Healthy Energy (Snell et )
  • Environmental Racism (Dr. Kirch)
  • Risk & Offsite Consequences (Dr. Khan, Amin, Sripaul)
• Community Workshops (Led by SWCCI) – SWCCI organized and delivered a series of workshops to educate residents on facility-related risks, emergency preparedness, and environmental justice. These events supported knowledge-sharing and community empowerment.
• Public Presentation to Houston City Council (SWCCI) – SWCCI representatives presented the community’s concerns and preliminary findings to the Houston City Council, raising awareness and urging action at the municipal level.
• CASPER Study Results (Dr. Gerber-Chávez) – The Community Assessment for Public Health Emergency Response (CASPER) gathered structured survey data from residents to assess perceived health, safety, and preparedness concerns. The results showed high levels of community anxiety, a lack of knowledge about emergency procedures, and strong concern about the siting of the facility—data that now inform emergency planning and policy advocacy.
• Disamenities Study Results (Dr. Gerber-Chávez) – This study documented how the presence of the propane-air facility negatively affects the neighborhood’s perceived quality of life, property values, and sense of security. The findings provided concrete evidence of the facility’s impact as a substantial disamenity, strengthening claims of environmental injustice and adding weight to legal and political advocacy.

Major Project Changes

We did not need to make any major changes to the original project plan. However, in addition to completing our initial project aims, we also accomplished or made progress the two “future directions” we had outlined. Dr. Gerber-Chaves completed an emergency management study and the team from Mary O’Connor Process Safety Center is advising us on the Disaster Risk Reduction Study – to identify and reduce the root causes of disaster risks, particularly those stemming from accidents at the Lantana or Pecan Point facilities.

These additional efforts will allow us to build on the project’s momentum and expand its impact beyond the original scope.

Outcomes: Community Benefits

Through this project, the Southwest Crossing Community Initiative gained a number of significant benefits that strengthened both local capacity and broader visibility:

• Data driven research studies: Our team and partners’ expertise were essential to the success of our community-led studies, which provided us with specific data to help identify specific risks and needs for safety plans and influence safety outcomes. These studies have also helped to contribute to new research and investigation of LPG peak shaving plants and their effects on communities.
• Community empowerment & awareness through information and education: All the data and research that has been conducted in our project has been or will be shared with community members and local One of the initial problems we faced in regard to the LPG facility was the lack of awareness and transparency from the company about the facility’s purpose, its function, and most importantly, its risks. Having experts properly convey the facts about LPG, facilities that store LPG, and their risks, gives the community the power to speak confidently about specific risks associated with LPG peak shaving facilities based on scientific research studies.
• Partnerships/Networking/Community Resources: Being a part of the Thriving Earth Exchange program gave us a wealth of access to many experts that participated in our work and connected us to a range of researchers, professionals, and resources, that otherwise would have not been as easily attained.
• Partnership Development: The community built meaningful relationships with new stakeholders, including scientists, engineers, public health professionals, and researchers. These partnerships were grounded in mutual respect, shared concerns, and a common goal of protecting community health and safety.
• Access to Expertise: Community members gained direct access to specialized knowledge in fields such as environmental science, engineering, public health, and emergency This expertise helped the community better understand the risks associated with the facility and supported evidence-based advocacy efforts.
• Valuing Lived and Professional Experience: The collaboration recognized and leveraged the diverse experiences of community members, many of whom bring backgrounds in the petrochemical industry, political engagement, social research, and community This created a space for co-learning between community leaders and technical experts.
• Knowledge Support and Capacity Building: The community benefited from ongoing consultation and technical support, enabling more informed decision-making and stronger engagement with policymakers and regulatory agencies.
• National Visibility and Network Expansion: Members of the Southwest Crossing Community Initiative were invited to present at a national conference, helping to raise awareness of their local struggle and forge new partnerships beyond the immediate region.
• Strategic Funding Guidance: The community received valuable advice on how to identify and apply for funding Support included guidance on fund management structures and identifying eligible recipients—crucial for sustaining long-term advocacy and project work.

Together, these outcomes have empowered the community to more effectively advocate for environmental justice, pursue legal and political solutions, and prepare for future challenges with strengthened networks and knowledge.

Project Impacts

The project has had several meaningful impacts on the Southwest Crossing community and beyond, leading to increased awareness, informed decision-making, and expanded engagement:

• Raising Public Awareness Through Media Engagement – Community members have reported findings and concerns to local media, highlighting the facility’s logistics, associated risks, and impacts on residents’ mental health. These stories have helped bring broader public attention to the issue and humanize the technical findings.
• Data-Driven Advocacy with Local Officials – By presenting newly generated scientific data, the community has engaged in more informed conversations with city council members and other local leaders. This data has shifted the tone of dialogue, making it harder to dismiss community concerns as anecdotal or unfounded.
• Community Education and Outreach – The findings have been used to educate residents in Southwest Crossing and neighboring communities about the risks posed by the facility. This has increased both understanding and urgency, encouraging broader participation in advocacy efforts.
• Forging New Alliances and Expanding Influence –  Through outreach and awareness efforts, the community has connected with other groups facing similar challenges, strengthening collective advocacy for safer facility siting and environmental justice policies across the region.
• Informing Public Representatives – The project outputs have been shared with key decision-makers, including representatives from the Mayor’s office and members of the Texas State Legislature. These interactions have raised the visibility of the issue at higher levels of government and opened new channels for potential policy change.

Together, these impacts reflect a growing shift in how the community’s concerns are heard and addressed, demonstrating the power of data-informed, community-driven advocacy.

Scientific Impact

Southwest Crossing is a highly engaged and knowledgeable community that includes professionals with backgrounds in environmental science, engineering, law, medicine, communications, and the arts. Among the residents are engineers with significant experience in the petrochemical industry, including process safety experts. From the outset, the community and TEX Co-Leads had a clear understanding of the issue—the siting of CenterPoint’s propane-air peak shaving unit within 500 feet of their homes—and a clear goal: to see the facility removed and relocated.

Community Scientists initially approached the project assuming there was little legal or scientific ground to challenge the facility’s presence. However, through sustained dialogue with the Co-Leads, they came to recognize the serious safety concerns inherent in the siting, regardless of how improbable an accident or terrorist event might seem. This shift in perspective among the scientists marked a key cultural moment: the expertise of the community reshaped the scientific framing of the issue.

Had Community Scientists not acknowledged the legitimacy of the safety concerns raised by SWCCI, the project could not have moved forward. In fact, it took over a month to find an engineer willing to consider conducting a probabilistic risk analysis or exploring potential offsite consequences. The turning point came when Dr. Faisal Khan, Director of the Mary Kay O’Connor Process Safety Center, agreed to engage. In his pre-interview, Dr. Khan described the facility’s siting as “absurd,” citing the absence of even minimal safety precautions such as a sacrificial blast wall. His perspective was deeply informed by his own background—having been born in Bhopal, India, community-engaged science was integral to his professional values.

Though the team ultimately could not calculate offsite consequences due to lack of access to the facility’s process diagrams, the community continues to pursue alternative avenues, including outreach to manufacturers of similar units. This persistence underscores the role of community priorities in shaping scientific inquiry.

Other Community Scientists, though unable to directly support the project, acknowledged the community’s concerns and connected the team with valuable resources. One such connection led to Dr. Ana McPhail of PSE Healthy Energy, whose team was exemplary in their collaboration with SWCCI. Their approach modeled how scientific investigation can be driven by, and responsive to, community-defined needs.

In sum, this project demonstrated how the culture of science can shift when community expertise is recognized as both credible and essential. Questions around siting safety and community risk—questions unlikely to have been asked or pursued otherwise—became central to the investigation, illustrating the powerful impact of community-driven science.

Community Leads

Brittney Stredic

I am a native Houstonian and have been a proud resident of the Southwest Crossing Community for over 15 years. I’ve been blessed to grow up in this community and with my neighbors who are family to me.

My passion is within the creative arts and expression. My greatest joy comes when I can help people express themselves and navigate through challenges with an outlook of hope and resilience leading to learning, growth and fulfillment. My work comprises audio – visual technology, production, graphics and arts, print media, writing and sales.

In 2012, I studied graphic design at Texas State University – San Marcos, and in 2016 graduated with a Bachelors of Science in Advertising and Mass Communication. In 2021, I began my Masters of Clinical Mental Health Counseling at the University of Houston – Clear Lake.

My goal is to see that my community remains protected and safe from the environmentally racist and hazardous propane storage facility that has been thrust upon us. By fighting this fight and seeing it through to the win, I believe my family, my neighbors, our children and our community will have their peace restored knowing that God fights for us and is on our side.

Marilyn Rayon 

Before retiring from FEDEX, I worked as a Sr Agent in Customer Service Escalation Resolution. Clients experiencing reoccurring issues were transferred to the Escalation desk. My job was to resolve the problem in a timely manner.

I’m originally from Michigan City, Indiana but Houston has been home for 36 years. In 1979 I earned my Bachelors in Marketing from Davenport University (formerly Detroit College of Business).  My husband (Leo Sr) and I moved to Southwest Crossing 32 years ago. We love our community. My hobbies are traveling, cooking and teaching Sunday School at my Church.

Several years ago, CenterPoint purchased land in our Neighborhood.  In May 2021 they began construction of a 300,000 gallon liquid propane gas tank facility here. As a result, in June 2021 we founded Southwest Crossing Community Initiative (SCCI); a grassroots organization. Our goal is the relocation of this dangerous Facility from our area. We fear the Tanks could experience a gas leak, fire, terrorist attack, stray bullet or projectile puncture, lightning strike, etc. Loss of life would be catastrophic. Daily I email political leaders, write to government agencies, etc. requesting their help. We are fighting for the return of safety to our homes.

Community Scientists  

Logan Gerber-Chavez (she/her)

Dr. Logan Gerber-Chavez is an emergency management planning expert specializing in compound hazard planning and work on climate justice and environmental justice in emergency management. She holds a Ph.D. in disaster science and management from the University of Delaware’s Biden School of Public Policy and Administration and M.S. and B.S. degrees in geography from the University of Oklahoma and Texas A&M University, respectively.

She has worked as an advisor to the U.S. Geological Survey on emergency planning for the national parks system. She has conducted research on projects over a variety of topics, including international climate policy, green roofing technology, climatology and micrometeorology, business recovery in disasters, hurricane evacuation decision-making, maternal health and infant feeding in disasters, international natech disaster management, wetlands regulations for floodplain management, flood buyout programs, and various COVID-19 related projects. Dr. Gerber-Chavez has taught courses in human and physical geography and GIS and has an award-winning collection of disaster and climate-related fiction and nonfiction books. She is currently working on research projects on equity in government funding for emergency management, all-hazard planning for remote locations, floodplain development, and climate justice.

Dr. Faisal Khan

Dr. Faisal Khan is the Mike O’Connor II Chair Professor and Director of Mary Kay O’Connor Process Safety Center at Texas A&M University. He is also the Director of Ocean Energy Safety Institute (OESI), a US Department of Energy and US Department of Interior funded applied R&D initiative. Dr. Khan is a former Professor and Canada Research Chair (Tier I) of Offshore Safety and Risk Engineering at Memorial University of Newfoundland, Canada. He founded the Centre for Risk Integrity and Safety and Engineering (C-RISE) at Memorial University, Newfoundland and Labrador, Canada. His research interests include process safety, system safety and security, extreme event modelling, asset integrity and risk engineering. He is a Fellow of the Canada Academy of Engineers. He has authored over 500 research articles in peer-reviewed journals and mentored 85 PhDs and 85 master students. He is Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Process Safety & Environmental Protection (Elsevier) and Safety in Harsh Environments (Nature Springer).

Community Science Fellow

Dr. Susan Kirch (she/her)

I am a science educator, molecular biologist and (now) an independent scholar.  I recently retired from New York University where I was an associate professor in the Department of Teaching and Learning.  I am new to Community Science and excited to be working with Thriving Earth Exchange and Southwest Crossing Community Initiative.  I enjoy co-authoring research projects and am interested in using my experiences to assist community members further develop catalytic and empowering projects that lead to new knowledge and viable solutions. In my work as a science educator, I taught undergraduate-level biology, microbiology, environmental science and human health and disease in the Science in Our Lives program I designed for future teachers; I prepared future teachers for teaching elementary school science and for conducting research on teaching and learning; and I led the science education specialization in the Teaching and Learning Doctoral program.

Bullard Center for Environmental & Climate Justice

The Bullard Center for Environmental and Climate Justice at Texas Southern University addresses longstanding issues of systemic inequality and structural racism that cause disproportionate pain, suffering and death in Black and other people of color communities.  The Center is directed by environmental justice scholar Dr. Robert D. Bullard and is housed in the Barbara Jordan-Mickey Leland School of Public Affairs. It strives to be a leading force for transformative environmental, climate and racial justice using rigorous science, community-driven research, policy, civic engagement programming, and effective advocacy.