The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) held a community meeting on June 5, 2018, to update the public on progress toward removal of the San Jacinto River Waste Pits Superfund Site (SJRWPSS).  About 85 people attended the meeting.  Vince Ryan, Harris County Attorney, Jack Morman, Harris County Commissioner, Precinct 2, and Harris County and State of Texas agency representatives were at the meeting.

 

The SJRWPSS is an old dump site for paper mill wastes that was created in the 1960’s.  The site subsided and now most of it is underwater and subject to the flow of the San Jacinto River.  The SJRWPSS has released dioxin and other toxic pollutants into the San Jacinto River and Galveston Bay for the past 50 years.  The approved EPA decision is to excavate the two impoundments, north and south, and take the contaminated soil to a secure waste disposal site.    

 

EPA representatives, Gary Miller, the remedial project manager, and Gary Baumgarten, discussed the progress made so far.  Hurricane Harvey covered the site with about 14 feet of water.  Since that time EPA has repaired the temporary cap on the north impoundment that keeps the waste intact and has replaced cameras, signs, and buoys that were destroyed or damaged during the hurricane.  All repairs were made by September 21, 2017.  The EPA administrator, Scott Pruitt, signed the decision to remove and dispose of the waste on October 9, 2017.

 

The clean-up will cost about $115 million.  The Potentially Responsible Parties (PRP’s), International Paper Company and McGinnis Industrial Maintenance Corporation, owned by Waste Management, have agreed to spend about $4.5 million on the design to remove and dispose of the waste.  These companies have not agreed to pay the $115 million for removal and disposal of the contaminated material in the SJRWPSS.  The EPA will negotiate with the PRP’s to pay for these removal and disposal costs.  The design to remove the waste will take up to 29 months and the actual removal and disposal will take 27 months.

 

One of the problems that we face now, while this process moves forward, is keeping people away from the SJRWPSS.  Currently, on a regular basis, people fish on and around the SJRWPSS.  A Texas Department of State Health Services, Texas Fish Consumption Advisory, has been issued for dioxin and PCB contamination in the San Jacinto River and Galveston Bay.  However, people continue to fish and eat the fish caught where the SJRWPSS is located.  Additional signs and educational efforts will be made but fishing next to the SJRWPSS presents a potential threat to people’s health. 

 

Brandt Mannchen   

June 6, 2018