Group Says Housing Study Proof of TCEQ's Industry Favortism

By Suzie Canales, Executive Director of Citizens for Environmental Justice (CFEJ)
Citizens for Environmental Justice (CFEJ) has learned that the Corpus Christi Housing Authority has suspended their plan to build the D.N. Leathers Townhomes, a development that was to be located at 1001 Coke Street, Corpus Christi, Texas, 78401 because the land is contaminated.

On December 10, 2008, the Housing Authority held a meeting at Oveal Williams Senior Center to discuss the D.N. Leathers Townhomes project; yet for 9 months the community has been kept in the dark wondering what became of those plans and why they hadn’t seen any construction going on.

Very recently CFEJ learned that the Corpus Christi Housing Authority suspended their plans after obtaining results of an environmental assessment by Apex Geosciences, Inc. that shows that the land/soil/groundwater are highly contaminated.

The report by Apex Geosciences, Inc for the Corpus Christi Housing Authority was dated March 2009; however, the Housing Authority has yet to tell the people in the community what they learned several months ago.

“I met with Richard Franco, Chief Executive Officer at the Corpus Christi Housing Authority, last Monday and he confirmed the Apex study I had obtained and he told me the site is a toxic waste,” said Suzie Canales Executive Director of CFEJ. “We are disturbed that the Housing Authority withheld this information from the public, in addition, it should be known that the responsibility falls on the TCEQ to protect human health and the environment and again, they’ve failed.”

The report showed that samples exceeded initial Texas Risk Reduction Program (TRRP) Tier 1 screening action levels for soil to groundwater ingestion for total lead and total petroleum hydrocarbons.

A water sample significantly exceeded the TRRP Tier 1 groundwater to groundwater ingestion action levels for Total Petroleum Hydrocarbons for Gasoline Range Organics (GRO), Diesel Range Organics (DRO) and Organic Range Organics (ORO).

Jean Salone, a Hillcrest Resident and member of CFEJ attended the December 10, 2008 Housing Authority meeting at the Oveal Senior Center . Salone voiced her concerns at the meeting about the Housing Authority’s plan to build on land that is contaminated.

“I told them at their meeting when they came out to Oveal Senior Center to tell us about their plans to build townhomes that the land is contaminated and they shouldn’t build there,” said Jean Salone. “So it’s not surprising that the study shows that it’s highly contaminated. Obviously all of refinery row is contaminated.”

For several years the CFEJ has raised concerns about health impacts from air pollution, soil and groundwater contamination, benzene and vapor intrusion along refinery row and for several years the TCEQ and other agencies have dismissed their concerns, the government has gone as far as to publicly declaring there are no health risks from living by heavy industry. In fact, on December 12, 2008, two days after the Housing Authority meeting at the Oveal Center , Michael Honeycutt, lead toxicologist with TCEQ came to the Oveal Center with a team of toxicologist from Austin to tell the community their monitoring data showed no benzene related health concerns.

However, this independent study by Apex, supports the concerns of CFEJ and supports the results of the bio-monitoring study by Texas A&M and CFEJ that found high levels of benzene in the blood and urine of adults and children tested in Hillcrest.

CFEJ believes that the TCEQ and local industry have been covering up the extent contamination along refinery row with reports and studies they commission that are designed to not find any problems and CFEJ is concerned that the $400,000 the TCEQ will spend over the next two years to re-do the bio-monitoring study is yet another attempt to cover-up the problems along refinery row.

“Local industry, local government and even federal government agencies have been concerned, we believe the concern is not so much for the community, but for the implications of our bio-monitoring study,” added Canales. “We sense that has resulted in the TCEQ coughing up $400,000 to counter our bio-monitoring study. That money would be better spent by working with CFEJ to determine the full extent of the soil contamination, groundwater contamination and vapor intrusion that includes a detailed chemical analysis. Anything short of a collaborative study with CFEJ will be a waste of tax-payers money because there is no trust between the community and TCEQ.”

CFEJ is also calling on the government to post warning signs around the area tested stating that the area is contaminated. In addition, the group wants a fence put up to keep the children out.