People who understand the health dangers of living in high-risk areas are more likely to accept home buyouts

Galena Park, Texas, is on the northern bank of the Houston Ship Channel, home of the nation’s largest petrochemical complex. The area includes 40 petrochemical plants, two of the nation’s largest oil refineries, and the high-traffic roadways and railways that keep them going.

About 4,200 of the town’s nearly 10,500 residents live within a mile of industrial sites that handle substances that are sufficiently hazardous to be covered under the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s Risk Management Program. Many have long understood that their ongoing exposure to pollutants increases their risk for cancer, respiratory diseases and other serious health issues, but financial and other barriers make it difficult for them to move.

“People living in high-pollution areas across the nation are predominantly racial and ethnic minorities—85 percent Hispanic in the case of Galena Park—with low incomes,” said Garett Sansom, DrPH, an environmental health expert with the Texas A&M University School of Public Health. “Not only do low incomes and limited health care access lead to major health issues, but proximity to extreme environmental hazards has been linked to racial residential segregation across the United States.”

Now, a new, multidisciplinary study led by Sansom and other Texas A&M colleagues that is part of a broader, multi-year effort sheds light on how Galena Park residents feel about a novel remedy for their situation: home buyouts.

In these programs, the government buys properties from owners and funds relocation for renters living in high-risk areas. So far, they have been used primarily in regions vulnerable to natural disasters such as earthquakes and floods. Now they are increasingly becoming an option for people facing extreme environmental risks.

For the study, funded by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and published in Sustainable Environment, Texas A&M experts in environmental health, landscape architecture and veterinary physiology and pharmacology analyzed data on Galena Park residents to identify the factors that affect consideration of property buyouts.

“Implementing buyout programs has been challenging, and our study is one of the few to determine what leads people to accept them,” Sansom said.

The research team used an adapted Community Assessment for Public Health Emergency Response approach to analyze Galena Park properties and create a composite score for each property’s flood probability, exposure to storm surge and proximity to industrial facilities. In addition, they collected demographic data and residents’ concerns about air, soil and water pollution and willingness to accept a buyout.

The team collaborated with local organizations, which helped them gain what Sansom called a “nuanced understanding” of residents’ ongoing experiences and concerns.

The study found that people living in areas with the highest levels of risk and a history of flooding, and those who were more concerned about environmental risks, were more willing to accept a buyout.

“The key takeaway is that residents’ knowledge of their environmental health risks is the most important factor in their decision of whether or not to take a buyout,” Sansom said.

This means that targeting areas most affected by environmental risk could increase the success and feasibility of buyout programs, he said. On the other hand, Sansom noted that more research is needed on preparing residents for the steps taken in relocation and the long-term outcomes of property buyouts.

Despite the study’s limitations—using a relatively small sample size, measuring a single point in time and not addressing factors such as trust in medical care and access to transportation—Sansom said the study adds insight into why some residents take the buyout and others don’t.

“In short, buyout programs are a promising way to address environmental health risks, especially in communities that face disproportional risks,” he said. “This study also underscored the importance of community-driven approaches in addressing complex environmental issues.”

Others involved with the study were Ruby Hernandez, Lyssa Losa and Jacquita Johnson with the Department of Environmental & Occupational Health; Galen Newman, PhD, Jaimie Hicks Masterson and Deidra Davis, PhD, with the Department of Landscape Architecture; Weihsueh Chiu, PhD, with the Department of Veterinary Physiology and Pharmacology and Kayode Atoba, PhD, with the Center for Texas Beaches and Shores at Texas A&M-Galveston.