You Might Want To Take That Dioxin Out of the San Jacinto Before a Hurricane Does It First

YOU MIGHT WANT TO TAKE THAT DIOXIN OUT OF THE SAN JACINTO BEFORE A HURRICANE DOES IT FIRST EPA San Jacinto Waste Pits dioxin over background mapYesterday marked the start of the 60-day public comment period on this week’s proposal to pull about 202,000 cubic yards of dioxin-laced muck out of the San Jacinto River near I-10. The Houston Chronicle editorial board was among the first to jump in (though not through official comment channels), highlighting the EPA’s conclusion that the waste, which has already been seasoning the seafood and (potentially) the river’s swimmers and nearby residents since the 1960s, could cause much larger problems if the wrong storm or hurricane hits the site; the board also calls out International Paper and Waste-Management-affiliated McGinnis Industrial Maintenance — companies potentially on the hook for the cleanup bill — for purportedly slowing down the cleanup process. [Houston Chronicle; previously on Swamplot] Map of higher-than-background dioxin levels near San Jacinto Waste Pits site at I-10: EPA

2 Comment

  • Poison vs Parking – seems to me $96 million to remove the toxic waste is reasonable, given the $103 million to create parking in the Astrodome. Yes, different entities would be on the hook for these bills, and I would hope the poisoned food would be addressed first. A temporary cap says it all with ‘temporary’.

  • And yet another reason not to eat oysters from Galveston Bay