In March of 2016, Carolyn Stone woke to the grinding of heavy machinery and the smell of smoke. It was early — maybe 7 a.m. — and the sun had barely risen in Channelview, Texas, a small community east of Houston. Stone jumped out of bed and threw open her living room curtains. The day she’d fought to prevent had finally arrived.
An army of bulldozers, commercial mowers, woodchippers and other heavy equipment lined the property directly across the street. For decades, the piece of land had been home to large trees, fields of purple azaleas and some of Stone’s closest neighbors. Its location along the banks of the San Jacinto River made it a popular place for backyard barbecues and fireworks on the Fourth of July.
But, like other properties along Lakeside Drive, it had been sold to a chemical barge company that served facilities along the nearby Houston Ship Channel. And now, despite neighborhood zoning restrictions blocking industrial activity in the area, it was about to become the latest foothold for the petrochemical industry in South Channelview…