By David Taylor / Managing Editor
The Texas Health and Environment Alliance (THEA), led by founder Jackie Medcalf, met Tuesday night to update its members with the changes that have occurred since the election of President Donald J. Trump.
“When we get a new president, we get new leadership within the Environmental Protection Agency and the new leader of the EPA is Lee Zeldin,” Medcalf announced.
She also introduced Scott Mason IV as the new administrator for Region 6. Mason is headquartered in Dallas and his jurisdiction covers Arkansas, Louisiana, New Mexico, Oklahoma, Texas, and 66 Tribal Nations.
“These two are our decision makers when we think about who has the power to do what we need in this cleanup,” she said.
Medcalf said the record decision outlining the cleanup n the north waste pits in total was made by the administrator under the first Trump presidency. The southern site got was cleaned up down to 10 feet during the Biden administration, but no big decisions were made on the northern pit in the last four years.
“I encourage you to send them a letter asking them to finish what they started,” she told folks attending the meeting.
Several years ago the responsible parties for the Superfund site mess produced a report that was supposed to be the near final plan on how they were going to execute the cleanup as ordered, but it had big issues.
The EPA sent the companies a Notice of Takeover, she said, basically telling them that the plan was seriously deficient and if they didn’t remedy the things outlined, they had the legal authority to take over the site.
They submitted what was called a 100 percent design, but the EPA told them they missed the mark. They gave them more time and another chance.
“On that last 100 percent design plan, we submitted the most extensive comments that we have ever submitted on any plan to date,” she said, “and we’ve been involved in this site for over 10 years.”
She received a copy of the latest plan in January and Medcalf and her team have reviewed much of the material, taking time to compare it to the comments they previously submitted.
“Sadly, as I went through the spreadsheets of our comments and our questions and the column that said was this addressed, over 95 percent was no. Our overall conclusion is that it is still deficient,” she explained.
One of the sticking points was the timeline. An original agreement was two-and-a-half years. Now that has stretched to seven years which THEA finds unacceptable.
“The EPA entertained that for a while,” she said, “but recently, they’ve been aligning with us and pushing back and saying, you know, seven is a bit unreasonable guys.”
For the first time in years, the responsible party said they were willing to work year-round if the EPA makes them, Medcalf told the group.
The double cofferdam wall is another sore spot. The plans are to backfill the middle of the double cofferdam, and another structure added that will provide an extra layer of protection should a barge head towards the pit again.
“Something that they have brought up in this design is that over time, the sheet piling will corrode and there will be loss of the sheet piling, and they are planning to go down about 70 feet into the riverbed. They are concerned that they won’t be able to pull all the sheet pile up,” she explained.
If they can’t pull it out, they want to cut it off and then push it below ground surface.
“Many of us have watched the river change a lot over time, but also the pipelines part of the concern and the argument around not putting the sheet piling deeper to make it higher above the river water was because they couldn’t go deeper because of the pipelines. But now, if they say they can’t pull it up and out, they want to push it deeper,” she said. Leaving the cofferdam was not something the Port of Houston Authority wanted and neither did THEA.
That was discussed and added to a petition that will be sent to the EPA administrator.
The TxDOT right of way was another troublesome point.
“They will be replacing the bridge at the same time that this construction is going on. There has been discussion about widening that right-of-way, and they have altered the design for that containment area based on this,” she said.
Unfortunately, however, no final agreement has been reached. Medcalf said they still want to see a Plan B.
There was much more discussed, too detailed for this report, and the meeting ended with numerous members signing a petition to be sent to the EPA with their concerns.
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