The Harris County Attorney’s office is suing the companies responsible for the horrific poisoning of the San Jacinto River, Upper Galveston Bay and the Houston Ship Channel. The poison of major concern is dioxin (polychlorinated dibenzo-p-dioxins) leaking from waste pits located on the western bank of the San Jacinto River, just north of Interstate Highway 10 bridge.

The dioxin-laden San Jacinto River waste pits were created by McGinnes Industrial Maintenance Corporation when the company started hauling waste there in the late 1960s. The EPA report describes the waste as sludge hauled from Champion Paper Company’s paper mill in Pasadena. Dioxin was produced as a by-product of the paper bleaching process. The toxic sludge was dumped into the pits in the sand dunes. No specific permit to dispose of toxic waste was needed in the ‘60s.

Aerial photos reveal submerged waste pits -- several holes dug in the sand with soil bermed up into levees around them. The EPA reports says there were three former disposal pits covering about 3.5 acres. Scientist with the TCEQ took samples of soil in the area to find “astonishing levels of dioxin” - as high as 70,000 parts per trillion - near where the pits were submerged.

“When Vince Ryan took office as Harris County Attorney, he asked the environmental community what was the most important water issue for the county, and just about everybody said the dioxin in the San Jacinto River,” says Rock Owens, manager of the Environmental and Infrastructure Practice Group for the Harris County Attorney’s Office. “We are hoping that the lawsuit and other efforts will move the case along.”

Texas law permits the county to file suit seeking penalties of up to $25,000 per day for each and every day the pollution occurred. It also can be used to require the companies to fund environmental projects that will assist the citizens of Harris County to learn about and respond to the dioxin in the river as well as address environmental damage not covered by the EPA action. The Defendants in this suit are International Paper, Inc., Waste Management, Inc., Waste Management of Texas, Inc. and McGinnis Industrial Maintenance Corporation.

The EPA added the San Jacinto River waste pits to the Superfund Sites National Priority List (NPL) in 2008, but the process for dealing with the contamination was going slow. “One of the first things that happened in 2009 was that I was made aware of problem in getting anything done on that waste site,” Harris County Attorney Vince Ryan says. “I’ll never forget going out there. Luckily I took boots. People were fishing and kids were swimming in the water.”

Dioxin is highly toxic persistent organic pollutant (POP). In addition to being highly toxic, POPs endure for a long time and are absorbed in fat tissue. Exposure to dioxin can alter cell growth and development. It can have long-term effects on the reproductive system and the immune system. Pregnant women exposed to dioxin risk damage to the fetus and developmental problems for newborns. Dioxin also is known to cause cancer. Dioxins are produced as a by-product of waste incineration, bleaching of pulp and paper, and certain types of chemical manufacturing and processes.

The health risks caused by the dioxin prompted the State of Texas to issue a consumption advisory for crab and all species of fish from the San Jacinto River, warning women who are nursing, pregnant or who might be pregnant and children under the age of 12 not to consume any fish or blue crab from the area. It has also advised adults and children to avoid the risk of exposure to dioxin through skin by not camping, fishing, or picnicking near the San Jacinto River where the toxic waste ponds were located.

The Texas Health Services Department (THSD) last reported on fish tissue sampling for dioxin in 2004 Samples were taken November 2010 and January 2011. Reports from these samples are expected in six to eight months according to Mike Tennant, fishery biologist with the THSD Seafood and Aquatic Life Group. “We are working on a contract to collect more samples from the Houston Ship Channel,” says Tennant. “Most of the funding (for fish studies) comes from the EPA routed through the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ).”

Harris County representatives met with Al Armendariz, EPA regional administrator, to move the process for dealing with the toxic San Jacinto River waste site forward. The county was able to get a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with the EPA to collaborate so that they could be involved early in the process. This agreement to create a role for government in a Superfund Site is unprecedented: Usually the county must wait for the public comment period to get involved.

Snehal Patel, chief of the Environmental Regulatory Section for the Harris County Attorney’s Office worked with the EPA, the TCEQ and other organizations as well as the responsible parties to decide on a path forward to study the nature and extent of the problem and develop a remedy for site. “The Superfund process had just begun, and Ryan thought the snake-like process was taking too much time,” Patel recalls. “We felt time was of the essence. The dioxin leaking into waterways needed to be stopped in short time.”

The stakeholders developed a short-term plan to build a protective barrier over the pit. A geo-membrane similar to those used in landfills and an engineered rock barrier now covers the waste pits. The EPA also required passive membrane samplers to monitor any diffusion of dioxin from the containment area.

Meanwhile, the EPA is conducting a study on how to remediate the San Jacinto River site. The first draft of the study is expected to come out this summer. “That report will basically have all studies and sampling done to date with analysis,” says Patel. “It is very important document - the basis for a feasibility study in 2013 for a permanent solution for the site.”

Related Links:
EPA National Priorities List
Dioxins and Their Effects on Human Health, World Health Organization
Story of the Lost Waste Pits