The Texas Attorney General's Office is suing a chemical manufacturing company, alleging it released more than 70,000 pounds of air pollution from its Freeport plant.
Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton’s office is asking the court to impose civil penalties against Blue Cube Operations LLC, as well as require the company to hire independent auditors and implement compliance measures. Paxton is currently running in the republican runoff for Senate against encumbent republican John Cornyn.
"I will not allow any company to harm Texans' health with dangerous chemicals,” Paxton said in a news release Monday. “Companies operating in Texas have a duty to protect the people who live and work around them. Blue Cube's repeated failures exposed Texas families to hazardous substances and forced entire communities to shelter in place. We will hold them accountable and work to prevent this kind of threat to public health in the future."
Blue Cube is a subsidiary of Olin Corporation. Olin's media relations team did not immediately reply to a request for comment.
The lawsuit lists findings from the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ), which found that the company had at least 11 emissions events and "systemic operational failures" between 2022 and 2025, when the facility allegedly exceeded allowable emissions or violated state standards.
Those emissions events include achlorine gas leakat the facility last year which sparked a shelter-in-place order for the cities of Clute and Lake Jackson, as well as all Brazosport ISD schools.
TheHouston Chroniclefound that the incident was thelargest chlorine gas leakin Texas since 2020. KHOUreportedat the time that Blue Cube had been fined nearly $200,000 by the TCEQ over the previous five years.
In addition to the emissions events, the lawsuit found that Blue Cube failed to properly conduct inspections and monitoring, comply with chlorine emissions limits and report an emissions event in a timely manner. The TCEQ also found inaccuracies in some of the company's permits.
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