After the local government called for help to clean up a hazardous waste site in Houston, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is seeking information from the Union Pacific Railroad (UPRR), which is located near two cancer clusters in the community.
EPA Acting Assistant Administrator Barry Breen, Sent a letter CEO Lance Fritz followed up with Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner’s serious concerns about pollution and cleanup at the Houston Wood Conservation Plant site. They are also seeking information on UPRR’s understanding of pollution and its cleanup efforts.
Wow. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency wrote today to the CEO of Union Pacific Railroad, requesting information about its railroad site in Houston, where cancer clusters were found among residents near the site.
EPA expects UP to provide detailed information on the website requested by the Mayor of Houston. pic.twitter.com/4a6rY5bQIC
— Irene Douglas (@erinmdouglas23) September 9, 2021
“The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is committed to advancing environmental justice and incorporating fairness considerations into all aspects of our work, including licensing, enforcement, and clean-up activities under the Resource Conservation and Restoration Act (RCRA) to ensure that pollution is historically and sustainable Communities with an overburden of impact are fully considered and resolved,” the letter reads. “As this work continues, I am writing to share EPA’s views on the UPRR site and express our agency’s interest in addressing the severe and disproportionate environment faced by the Houston Grand Fifth District, Port of Denver, Trinity Garden and Kashmir Garden communities. A commitment to burden.”
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency stated that after a report from the Texas Department of Health and Human Services in January 2021 found that childhood acute lymphoblastic leukemia and adult kidney disease occurred, a large amount of data showed the severity of pollution and subsequent impact on living The health impact of the community near the site. According to the Houston Department of Health, renal pelvis cancer and renal pelvic cancer around the UPRR site.
The former wood processing plant was closed in the 1980s, but it currently ranks above 80% of all 11 environmental justice indexes used by the EPA, including potential diesel exposure, air toxic carcinogenic risks, and respiratory system hazards.
Justin Sullivan/Getty
Health officials found that compared with the state average, children living in District 5 and Kashmir Gardens (mainly black communities) are five times more likely to develop leukemia than the state average. Compared with other people in Texas, adults living near the location also have a higher chance of being found to have cancer.
In April 2019, representatives of the Houston Department of Health, the Texas Environmental Quality Council, and UPRR first expressed concerns about creosote (a type of coal tar that may be carcinogenic to humans) in wood processing facilities.
Since then, representatives of the health department, DSHS and local government have been working to monitor, track and map the health problems of residents.
In June 2021, the City of Houston opposed Union Pacific’s cleanup plan, and Mayor Turner expressed concern about the company’s lack of transparency. According to the letter, he sought help from the Environmental Protection Agency to ensure that the community had access to all information.
Union Pacific Railroad is required to provide answers to 63 questions about the site and its cleanup by September 30, 2021.
Weekly newspaper Contacted EPA for comments, but did not respond to the announcement in time.
