Spatial and Temporal Trends of Hazardous Material Spills and Their Impacts on Minority Populations in Texas

Spatial and Temporal Trends of Hazardous Material Spills and Their Impacts on Minority Populations in Texas

This paper analyzes the temporal and spatial trends in hazardous material releases in the state of Texas between 2008 and 2013. The analysis was reserved to the top 10% of National Response Center related spills and incorporated the use of basic statistics and spatial analysis tools. A correlation was identified between the number of spills reported and the Bureau of Labor Statistics unemployment rates. Additionally, this research identified Equipment Error as the leading cause of an incident, contrary to previous analysis determining that Human Error was the main cause. Spatially, incidents are more frequently reported near the Gulf of Mexico, with a slight significance to the Dallas-Ft. Worth region in 2011. A positive correlation was identified between the population count of minority census groups per county and the number of chemical releases per county.