The plain version

The plants along the Houston Ship Channel are not a backdrop in Deer Park — they carry a large part of the city's revenue, its job base, and its emergency-planning map. What they may emit is decided by the state, through TCEQ permits. How they pay the city is decided by the industrial district agreements the City Council negotiates — payments made in lieu of regular city property tax. How the town prepares for an incident runs through the Local Emergency Planning Committee. Three different rooms, three different levels of government, all pointed at the same fenceline.

This page gathers who permits the plants, who taxes them and on what terms, and who plans for the days something goes wrong — plus the meetings where those decisions actually get made. Same promise as the rest of this hub: where we put a number on the page, we name the document it came from. A figure that can't carry its source doesn't get published here.