Exxon Mobil installs 350 miles of perimeter security.
Tighten up
GDI contractors Will Myers and Chris Norwood hang sensor wires on fences along the perimeter of Exxon Mobil as part of the plant’s ongoing security and safety systems update.
More than 30 homes near Exxon Mobil have already begun to see the impact of the company’s newest security project.
“First I noticed that they cut down all the oleander bushes past their docks,” said Billy Barnett, who lives off Bayway on Bayvilla. “It didn’t seem to make sense because they had planted 200 or so of them several years ago as a barrier to make it nice for property owners.”
Barnett said he and his neighbors really began wondering what was going on once the tall trees that stood between residents and the neighboring plant began to disappear.
“They started marking the trees with pale green paint,” he said. “Then these were cut down - some were 75-year-old trees.”
Russ Roberts, Exxon Mobil Baytown spokesman, said the action is part of Exxon’s newest security project, which will protect the perimeter of the 3,000-acre facility.
The project will install 350 miles of sensor-wire fencing, 20-miles of fiber optic cable, 150 surveillance cameras and 450 concrete poles to string along a power source.
Roberts said the project would not be uniform around the facility, as Exxon is still trying to “be a good neighbor,” preserving green space wherever possible.
He said fencing would be visible from some areas to serve as a visual deterrent.
Mainly along the North side of the facility, he said the existing fencing will be pulled back and security-cameras will be installed.
To improve visibility, the project will remove 100 trees, one-third of which are located along Bayway.
“It’s not just about security inside the plant, but also for the people around the plant,” said Roberts.
He said that since the 9/11 attacks, Exxon has been re-evaluating their security and has implemented a plan for ongoing improvement.
Though not part of a Homeland Security initiative, Roberts said, “cooperation with all federal agencies is very close-knit.”
This particular project began last year, though this is the first phase that has directly affected residents.
Connie Tilton, another local Exxon Mobil spokesman, said that the company had pledged to plant two trees in place of every one removed.
She said Exxon is trying to plant the new trees near the original removal site and has even made special provisions for those that cannot.
As part of that provision, more than a dozen trees were planted Friday on the campus of Baytown’s Jessie Lee Pumphrey Elementary.
Barnett said while he sees the value in what Exxon has promised with the 2-1 replant, he is not satisfied.
“They’re going to replace a 75-or-so year-old tree with a seedling, so I guess in 75 years it’ll be the same,” he said.
Also a member of Beautify Bayway, a grassroots civic organization, Barnett said he thinks the removal of Crape Myrtles and Oleander bushes is unwarranted.
“Why not try to save some of them,” he said. “I know I could get volunteers out there to dig them up and replant them at the nature center or somewhere.”
Roberts and Tilton said researchers decided that these bushes would, for the most part, not survive a transplant.
“Crape Myrtle’s are very hardy plants, but even they can’t be transplanted at certain times of the year,” said Roberts. “If we’re going to transplant something we want it to live.”
Barnett said his biggest qualm with the project is that it will affect the aesthetic appeal of his neighborhood.
“I live across from Exxon and basically, they’re a pretty good neighbor, I just wish they’d be a little more flexible with things like this,” he said. “It’s nice to have those trees over their as a shield from the industrial view.”
Roberts said Exxon is trying their best to keep green space, but reiterated the need for security improvements.
He said the site produces several times more product than an average refinery, making security of foremost importance.
The largest refinery in the U.S., the Exxon Mobil Baytown Refinery and Chemical Plant produces enough barrels of oil to fill 400,000 30-gallon automobiles each day.
Roberts said Exxon will be leaving a natural buffer in many areas and is trimming trees, in lieu of removing them, where feasible.
A completion date is not set in stone, but Roberts said Exxon is targeting a project wrap-up at the end of the year.
“This is part of our ongoing commitment to security,” he said. “There’s never a finality to that, it’s never done.”
For now, those traveling down Bayway, Park Street and Decker Drive might notice concrete poles rearing their heads and the stubs on tree trunks poking out from where branches have been trimmed back.
Throughout the course of the year, the landscape along the 7-miles surrounding Exxon Mobil’s Baytown facility will continue to change.
* Source of article- The Baytown Sun
