In Houston’s Fifth Ward, Concern Over Superfund Site Grows With EPA Budget Cuts

Written by

Houston Press
By Dianna Wray
Original article here

Houston-area activists gathered on a street corner in Fifth Ward on Tuesday, just across from the Many Diversified Interests Inc. Superfund site — which is currently under redevelopment after the federal Environmental Protection Agency allowed years to pass without cleaning up the lead-contaminated site — to announce that they are joining organizers from across the country in influencing how the EPA deals with the Superfund program.

The location of the announcement was no accident. Instead of cleaning up MDI — a 35-acre tract of land that was the location of a foundry from 1926 to 1992 that left the the site, along with the groundwater beneath it, laced with lead — the EPA took the site off its priority list in 2010, and allowed a developer to get to work redeveloping it.

Now, as the construction on the site continues, local activists are pointing to the MDI site as an example of what may happen if Scott Pruitt, the new EPA administrator, follows through on his plan to cut $330 million of the Superfund program’s $1.1. billion budget, a reduction of 30 percent.

“Scott Pruitt’s plan to streamline the Superfund process in favor of cutting costs will lead to incomplete cleanups of contaminated neighborhoods, as demonstrated in the past at sites like MDI in Houston’s 5th Ward,” Rosanne Barone, the Houston program director for Texas Campaign for the Environment, said in a statement. “Painted as a quick way to boost economic development, Pruitt’s recommendations are more akin to a fast track to injustice.”

Cutting the Superfund program’s budget may not sound like a big deal, but that’s just because you haven’t been up close and personal, wondering if you are drinking lead-laced groundwater from the MDI site or dealing with any of the toxic sludge leaking out from the San Jacinto Waste Pits or any of the other 13 federally designated Superfund sites in Harris County.

Pruitt has talked a good game since he was confirmed as the Trump administration’s EPA head earlier this year. Pruitt has said that he is intent on focusing on one of the most important missions the EPA is tasked with, cleaning up the toxic, sometimes carcinogenic Superfund sites that dot the landscape of the United States.

In fact, Pruitt has stated that cleaning up Superfund sites would be returned “to their rightful place at the center of the EPA’s core mission.” He even put together a task force last month to get advice on how to handle Superfund, the federal program created more than 30 years ago to fund the cleanup of sites contaminated with hazardous substances and pollutants.

However, it seems Pruitt has been talking through his hat when it comes to the Superfund program, because despite all the promises of a real focus on Superfund sites, the proposed 2018 budget includes those massive cuts to the program’s actual budget.

Local Superfund organizers were wary but hopeful when Pruitt initially supported a focus on the Superfund sites — after all, this is the man who rivaled Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton for the record of lawsuits filed against the EPA — but when they learned about the budget cuts, they went to work.

So the plan was cooked up to launch the People’s Task Force, an entity aimed at pushing their own recommendations for the Superfund program based on their collective years of boots-on-the-ground experience in dealing with the problems at various sites. Based on the proposed budget cuts, area activists believe that Pruitt will also be inclined to use cost-cutting measures like the ones employed with the MDI site.

“Environmental justice communities have long been forced to contend with the negative impacts of lax environmental clean-up and lax enforcement thereof in communities of color,” Juan Parras, director of Texas Environmental Justice Advocacy Services, said in a statement. “It is unconscionable that the EPA and TCEQ are comfortable with members of our community being exposed to elevated levels of lead when, as stated by the CDC, any level of lead is unsafe.”

The Reverend James Caldwell also sounded off, pointing to the MDI site as the standard Texans can expect if the Superfund budget is actually cut in 2018. “The MDI site was contaminated with lead, and elevated levels have been identified in the community. This is not only an environmental justice concern but one of public health,” Caldwell stated. “This site was not properly addressed; this is a failure of the EPA, TCEQ and these partnership agreements. This was a cost-saving tactic. We cannot sacrifice our communities or our children. We must take a stand and say enough is enough.”

There’s no telling if Pruitt or anyone else in the EPA will actually take any of the advice the People’s Task Force comes up with, but at least if the EPA decides to sell the San Jacinto Waste Pits, for example, instead of going through the costly planned cleanup, nobody in the agency will be able to say that he was not warned that kind of approach could be a bad idea.

Clarification, August 3: Local activists are concerned about the groundwater below and around the MDI Site, which the EPA has continued to monitor, not necessarily the site itself.

Members of Fifth Ward community protest budget cuts to superfund site

Written by

CW39 Houston
By G. Trudeau
Original article here

HOUSTON – In Houston’s historic Fifth Ward, neighbors worry that politics and profits are taking priority over cleaning up their community.

“We’re boxed in with toxic hazards, and that is unacceptable,” says Joetta Stevenson with the Fifth Ward Super Neighborhood Civic Club. “To prioritize quick development over the full cleanup of a contaminated neighborhood is not just only gentrification at its worst, it’s environmental racism.”

The M.D.I. Superfund site is a 35-acre tract of land contaminated from a foundry that went bankrupt in 1992.

“A history of contamination with lead followed this entire community starting with the relocation of Bruce Elementary where every single child in the elementary school had elevated levels of lead,” says Yvette Arellano with the environmental group T.E.J.A.S.

And just because you don’t call the downtown area home, doesn’t mean you shouldn’t be concerned.

“In this case we’re talking about soil, we’re talking about a city that when it rains, water stands, or it flows,” says Stevenson.

The community rejects the Trump administration’s proposed budget that cuts superfund money by 30%.

Demonstrators also reject recommendations from the task force set up by the new EPA Chief, Scott Pruitt.

“These recommendations encourage private investment in the site cleanups that allow quick inadequate remediation. This site here is not fully cleaned up, with the evaluation process near complete and once completed, it will be deleted from the list of EPA’s national priorities,” explains Rosanne Barone with the Texas Campaign for the Environment.

They also fear a developer that purchased the land wants to build luxury condominiums A.S.A.P. Development, they say, will skimp on cleanup, and price them out of their homes.

Folks here cite that as recently at 2016, 3% of children in the area, 15 and under, were still testing above the acceptable level of lead in their system.

Washington, D.C. decisions hitting home, and for H-town, a community resisting profits over progress.

One Bin for All is dead. So how should Houston handle its trash?

Written by

Houston Chronicle Op-Ed
By Rosanne Barone

It’s unfortunate that the recent discussions in City Hall regarding Houston’s plan to sign a long-term recycling contract have been clouded by the ghost of One Bin for All.

That idea would have made Houstonians combine all their discards into one bin. It was adamantly rejected by the recycling industry, environmental justice advocates and many others.

The national Paper Recycling Coalition, Steel Recycling Institute, Institute for Scrap Recycling Industries and others knew that when used materials, food and pet waste are all combined together, it is also known as another name — “trash” — and so they wrote letters to then-Mayor Annise Parker advising her against this policy.

Thankfully, when Mayor Turner took office in 2016, he knew the best practice for Houston is to keep recyclable materials separate and clean so they can be sold to commodity markets and generate revenue for the City.

Turner himself reminded us at a press conference on June 28 that he has no interest in bringing back a proposal that would reverse Houston’s progress on sustainability, so let’s drop it.

Instead, let’s talk about the guaranteed economic opportunities and environmental protections that are now on the horizon as the city works to improve curbside recycling. According to the Houston-Galveston Area Council, when we include composters, hard-plastics reclaimers, electronics processors, construction- and demolition-debris recyclers and manufacturers of goods made from recycled items, we have 21,550 recycling jobs in our region and an industrial output of $4.5 billion per year.

Who knew recycling was so vital for Houston’s economy? Additionally, throwing all discards into landfills supports a disposable, wasteful culture while doing real damage to our environment. There are 56 leaking landfills in the state of Texas, four in Harris County and one in Fort Bend County. Landfills are also more often than not located in low-income neighborhoods, so trashing valuable materials also perpetuates environmental injustice.

Houston should instead follow other U.S. cities committed to sustainability by developing a zero-waste plan. Out of the nation’s 10 largest cities, Houston is the only one lacking a zero-waste plan, or at least a plan to get closer to it, like in San Antonio.

For many cities, zero waste means more than 90 percent of materials will be diverted from landfills through recycling, composting and reuse.

That sounds like a big goal, but it’s also a process that we can take time one step at a time. Like any plan for successful progress, there should be measurable benchmarks to help us get where we need to be.

For example, some cities focus on launching composting pilot programs within a few years, while others aim to offer recycling at all multifamily housing, including offering training to residents. Houston is unique, and we can create our own individualized plan.

My number one recommendation to start is to expand recycling to apartments. When I mentioned to City Council recently that 40 percent of Houston residents live in apartments and have no way to recycle other than collecting materials in their own personal bins and bringing them to a recycling facility themselves, some council members recognized this as an urgent problem.

Another immediate step would be to provide recycling to businesses and commercial industries in Houston, accounting for a huge amount of waste produced by people at work.

And a pilot program for curbside composting would be a huge way to reduce organic matter in landfills which contributes significantly to the emission of greenhouse gases.

The City must lead by example, and should start by offering recycling in all public buildings, outdoor recreation spaces and on public transportation. In many cities with a zero-waste goal, the city offers recycling training and education to residents. The more the public feels involved in the process, the more likely they are to participate.

An improved recycling system for Houston isn’t just about catching up to other cities or becoming a global leader. It’s about responsibly reusing our resources to create jobs and improve not just some communities, but to provide recycling for all.

Rosanne Barone is the Houston Program Director for Texas Campaign for the Environment.