ROBSTOWN, Tx — A green ammonia plant, planned for the Robstown and Calallen area has a lot of people talking.
Last week residents in that area expressed their concerns on social media after finding out an ammonia plant would be coming to the area.
Yvette Villalobos, a Robstown resident said she is opposed to this project because of the dangers it can cause to the community.
"We have to state our concerns, are they going to actually take precautions on these things, if something leaks and something will, you know, something is bound to happen, are they going to have something set in place to take care of it?" Villalobos said. "We do not want to have our economy rising at the cost of our citizens and our community, so it is time that we fight and we stand against that."
Villalobos, and other citizens said the toxins and chemicals would be harmful for those in the community.
Avina Clean Hydrogen, who has filed as Nueces Green Ammonia, LLC, is planning to build the project on the Southwest corner of County Road 1889 and FM 46.
"We have to speak for those who cannot speak for themselves and for the little ones who cannot fight for themselves, this is what we are here for, this is what our community is about," Villalobos said. "We won’t stand just people coming in and dumping their toxins into our soils and into our water."
Nueces County Commissioner - Precinct 3, John Marez, said he is hearing out all of the resident's concerns and is hoping to give them more clarity on this issue soon.
"Of course I am concerned. Anytime we have an industry come in, it all has an impact on usage for utilities overall, the impact in our community and the safety for the processing itself, those are some of the questions I have had, and those are some of the questions I want answers too," Marez said.
Karen White, the Senior Director of Regulatory and Business Development for Avina Clean Hydrogen said the project has been under development for the past two years.
READ GREEN AMMONIA'S AIR PERMIT APPLICATION HERE
"The project is going to be an electrolytic hydrogen project which means that compared to a traditional process, where methane is cracked to produce hydrogen and combined with nitrogen to produce ammonia, our project process is produced with water and electricity cracks the hydrogen out of the water molecule and synthesizing nitrogen from air and adding that together to create ammonia," White said.
She added that before the project starts the company needs to go through a lot of procedures.
"The product is chemicals by its very nature, and so that requires us to have very stringent programs in place for this project before the TCEQ will allow us to come in and allow us to build and operate the plant," White said. "We will go through a very detailed risk management planning process where in public feedback will be used to identify and mitigate all the risks we might see form a project like ours."
Mike Culbertson, President and C.E.O. of the Corpus Christi Regional Economic Development Corporation said a project like this will be a benefit for the community.
"It is a way to get renewable energy and making it mobile, it will create 75 to 100 hundred jobs, and these are high-paying jobs, like I said half of them are going to be electricians," Culbertson said.
"There are other ways where we can get the economy and finances taken care of in our town as opposed to having something else that is so toxic," Villalobos said. "It is about time that we get leadership that follows up and pays more attention to what the people's needs are and there concerns.
Marez said Avina Clean Hydrogen will be coming to visit this community in the next few weeks to share more information with the public.
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