HOUSTON – Mayor Sylvester Turner was joined by the Houston Health Department to announce new developments related to the Union Pacific Railroad (UPRR) contaminated site.
In February, the UPRR announced a collaboration with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and community partners in an agreement to move forward with additional environmental assessment and testing at the former Houston Wood Preserving Works site in Fifth Ward.
The agreement followed decades of complaints from residents wanting Union Pacific to do more to contain and remove creosote contamination at and surrounding the old railyard at Liberty and Lockwood.
For years, rail crews cleaned rail ties at the site with creosote, which is a known cancer-causing chemical.
As defined by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, a cancer cluster is a “greater-than-expected number of cancer cases that occurs within a group of people in a geographic area over a period of time.”
City plans to relocate residents near contamination site
During the news conference, Turner said Union Pacific has not taken action at the demands of the city to relocate people who live next to its contamination site. When the mayor had a discussion with the CEO of the Union Pacific, he told him the timing was not right as they wait for the result of further investigation.
“Time is the enemy for people living in the highly exposed and dangerous zone,” Turner said.
He announced during the news conference a city task force will work on plans to relocate residents who live in a two to three-block radius around the contamination site, which will cost millions of dollars.
Turner said city officials plan to collaborate with other stakeholders to help with the cost of the relocation.
Union Pacific released the following statment:
Union Pacific is focused on the safety of the Fifth Ward community, and actively working on remediation. We’ve made measurable progress on site clean up since acquiring the property in a 1997 merger and are committed to finishing the job. Union Pacific proactively sought involvement from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) following the Houston Health Department’s September 2022 report citing the need for more soil testing.
The additional testing, as agreed upon in our collaborative approach, is required to accurately determine the true extent and source of contamination in the neighborhood. Relocation should be based on a human health risk assessment, which is part of the upcoming efforts that we are eager to begin once EPA gives final approval. We will engage with the community throughout the process.
Harris County Attorney Christian D. Menefee issued the following:
“I fully support the City of Houston’s plan to offer relocation assistance for residents living in the area of the creosote plume in the Fifth Ward and to call on Union Pacific to assist in relocating people directly affected by the contamination from its own treatment site. These residents have dealt with cancer and health issues for too long, and the stakes are too high to continue to wait to take action.
Harris County and the City of Houston have done everything possible to work with Union Pacific to clean up this site and related ongoing harms. I’ve previously stated that our goal has been a remediation plan that makes life safe for the folks who live and work in these neighborhoods as quickly as possible, and a relocation option must be a part of that plan.
It’s time to act, and my office will do everything we can to support the community as we move forward.”
Watch the news conference below:
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