Inspired by reading René Steinke’s new and recently optioned-for-film novel Friendswood, the plot of which centers on the aftermath of the Brio Superfund mess just south of I-45 and the Beltway, Cite magazine’s Allyn West returns to the former chemical waste facility at Dixie Farm Rd. and Beamer Rd. to snap some photos and have a look around: “The first thing you pass is a landfill. And then, incongruously, you pass archetypal subdivisions with bucolic names, much like Southbend must have been. There’s a dedicated bike lane on both sides of Dixie Farm, clearly marked and freshly painted. Then turning toward the site onto Blackhawk Boulevard, you pass Ashley Pointe, a new subdivision. That morning, I saw construction workers milling about around unfinished stick frames. If Southbend still existed, Ashley Pointe would sit right next to it.”
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The water in Clear Creek, just south of the site, is a “weird hue,” West reports, but an abandoned stretch of South Fork Blvd. is possibly a bit more eerie:
“The pavement was still there, as was the median, but the vegetation was so overgrown that I couldn’t see very far. Still, you can just make out the top of the San Jacinto College and Memorial Hermann Hospital buildings across the street.”
- Back to Brio: A Review of Friendswood [OffCite]
- Friendswood [Amazon]
- Novel with ties to a Houston suburb optioned for film [Houston Chronicle]
- Previously on Swamplot: My Toxic Houston Childhood
Photos: Allyn West
I worked on lawsuits against the developers and chemicals companies in the late ’80’s. Brio was/is a Cancer Cluster. Lots of untold suffering and death eminated from Brio.
Padraig, are there any articles/reports/books that tell the stories that you would recommend to someone interested in learning more about Brio?
This is so interesting – I saw this post and just spent some time looking into the history of all this the past few days. I used to pass this location everyday on I-45 when I lived in League City and had no idea. I figured it just was another example of Houston with our sprawl without rhyme or reason and that maybe it was some land somebody was still holding out on, so people developed around it. Little did I know it’s a huge toxic swath of land with a dark and convoluted history. I would definitely hope those people buying into Ashley Pointe are aware (many of which may not be). I certainly wouldn’t want to move close to this, even now…
There is a limited amount of information if you google. It is surprising that they have built across the street from the site.