HPD opens criminal investigation on Baytown chemical fire leak from last week

BAYTOWN, Texas (KTRK) -- What began as a chemical fire last week in Baytown has now turned into a criminal investigation.

A search warrant obtained by ABC13 shows a fire that happened at Bluebonnet Petrochemical Solution on Dec. 10 led to the opening of a criminal probe by Houston Police Department's environmental division.

The fire itself was extinguished fairly quickly by first responders, but environmental concerns escalated just as fast. The Harris County Flood Control, which manages surface waterways in the county, immediately began monitoring discharge into an adjacent bayou, and is still trying to figure out exactly what spilled.

"Right now, our biggest focus is really just the containment, developing remediation," Jeremy Phillips of Harris County Flood Control said. "In a lot of these cases where there are spills, there are parallel investigations that go on to determine if there is criminal activity or any civil issues and permitting and all that stuff."

A criminal investigation is exactly what's taken place. According to the search warrant, county officials noticed days into the cleanup that "employees appeared to be attempting to soak up the chemical but were not stopping the leak."

That prompted Harris County to ask HPD's environmental section to lead a criminal investigation. The warrant states investigators are looking into the entire "business complex and whether there exists evidence of unauthorized and illegal discharges that constitute the offense of water pollution."

ABC13 visited the Bluebonnet offices on Main Street in Baytown, and was immediately told to leave. Eyewitness News also tried calling Joy Baker, the woman identified as the owner of the company per the search warrant. ABC13's calls were not returned.

Meanwhile, cleanup along the adjacent bayou is still underway. Harris County Flood Control says the risk to well water used by nearby residents is very low because most of the wells are several hundred feet deep. However, they confirm they have found industrial detergent in the surface waterway they manage.

"Some of the chemicals we were looking for were surfactants (in the waterway) detergents type of product. That's one of the ones we've identified in the large sampling we've done," Phillips, adding that testing results on water samples are still pending, said.

Houston police say it has just begun its criminal investigation, and it's too early to say whether any criminal charges will be filed.

For news updates, follow Miya Shay on Facebook, X and Instagram.