Some Corpus Christi residents live too close for comfort to the city's largest refineries, the top federal environmental official in five states said.

Al Armendariz, regional administrator for the Environmental Protection Agency Region 6, said the fence line communities of Dona Park and Hillcrest should be priorities to receive help on environmental justice issues.

Both neighborhoods have been the subject of numerous private and public environmental health studies in the past two decades because they are located near several petroleum refineries.

Armendariz traveled to Corpus Christi on Friday to meet with local environmental activists, including Citizens for Environmental Justice, a local grass-roots group led by Suzie Canales. This was his second visit to Corpus Christi since being named regional administrator in November 2009.

Armendariz led other EPA officials on a windshield tour of the Dona Park neighborhood.

Some Dona Park residents are asking state and federal environmental officials to halt demolition of the shuttered ASARCO/Encycle plant nearby after a former employee reported hazardous chemicals remain on the site despite past cleanup efforts.

The demolition began last week.

Some, including Canales, have suggested buyouts, an option that Armendariz said the EPA has very little jurisdiction over.

"The Clean Air Act funds only buyouts of those homes built directly over hazardous waste sites," he said, citing New York's Love Canal near Niagara Falls as an example.

Dona Park has nearly 300 residential properties worth a total of $15 million, according to a Caller-Times analysis of Nueces County Appraisal District records. The median property value, including homes and lots, is about $52,000.

Some homeowners say they should be offered more than their appraised value because the nearby industry has lowered their property values.

The EPA is addressing several concerns regarding the plant with state environmental officials, Armendariz said.

"We want to be sure the community is not being affected by the work being done there," he said.

Canales said Friday's meeting addressed specific issues, including the need to establish a committee of environmental officials and activists to monitor what is being removed from the ASARCO/Encycle plant.

She said Armendariz committed to helping establish the committee, although a time frame was not given.