Residents seeing more flare-ups at the El Paso Marathon Refinery
Olivia Vara
EL PASO, Texas (KVIA)– Over the past couple days El Pasoans have reported seeing an increased number of flare ups at the El Paso Marathon Refinery.
This as the facility has been conducting flaring processes to get rid of excess gasses.
In the video attached to this web article, you can see the refinery flare-ups from Melody Palacios’s front yard.
Melody moved back in with her family from California about a year ago.
Her family has lived at this house next to the refinery for years.
ABC-7 reached out to Western Refining for an interview. Instead, they sent us a written statement.
The company said it’s monitoring the air and that they have not detected any impact.
The company said in part, quote “Operating conditions at the El Paso refinery are making temporary flaring intermittently necessary. Flares are safety devices that allow for the safe combustion of excess materials.”
Between the smell of gas, alarms announcing the flare-ups and the heat, now Melody is concerned for her parents’ health.
“Everyone’s concerned. My neighbors are concerned. In fact, one of my neighbors has an elderly parent. She’s like 80 plus. My mom’s 70. You know, you’re concerned when you have people who are elderly that live next to something like this. So, yeah, no, we’re all concerned,” said Melody Pelacios, a neighbor who lives in front of the refinery.
Melody also says it’s odd that a refinery would be so close to homes. She says it would be awesome if they could find a solution to make everyone feel comfortable.