No evidence of dioxins leaking from San Jacinto Waste Pits, companies say EPA has ordered more tests for cancer-causing dioxin after Hurricane Harvey

The EPA announced Thursday that it has approved a plan to stabilize the riverbed near the San Jacinto River Waste Pits Superfund site to address the hazards of a 20,000-square foot area where Hurricane Harvey gouged a pit about 12' feet deep next to the pits.

But at the same time, the EPA and companies responsible for the clean-up say further inspection and tests indicate that a temporary concrete cap appeared to have held during the storm and therefore a major leak of cancer-causing dioxins was averted.

The San Jacinto Waste Pits is the one of 43 Superfund sites in the coastal areas affected by Hurricane Harvey. But it's the only site that required additional follow-up and repairs, the EPA says. The pits were entirely submerged when a wall of water as high as 18' above normal levels flooded the river area.

On Sept. 29, the EPA ordered further testing at the Superfund site after a government dive team collected one sediment sample at the pits that tested at 70,000 micrograms per kilogram - 2,000 times higher than the EPA recommended clean-up level of 30 micrograms per kilogram.

But the preliminary results of six additional sediment samples collected from the northwest corner of the site show far lower concentrations, ranging from only .02 micrograms per kilogram to 38.9 micrograms per kilogram, according to information provided Thursday to the Chronicle by companies handling the clean-up.

Though one of those newly-reported results exceeds the EPA recommended clean-up level, they are similar to levels previously found in river sediments there, the companies say.

An independent Houston-based lab tested the samples, documents show.

"No release of dioxins or furans has occurred from the San Jacinto waste pits site as a result of Hurricane Harvey," the companies claim, based on the new sampling.

EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt, who was visiting Houston Thursday to meet with industry groups, recently announced that his agency is backing a plan to remove the waste pits entirely from the path of the river, partly because of damage caused by Hurricane Harvey. Various Harris County officials, environmental groups, citizen activists and members of congress all back the proposed $115 million removal plan.

The San Jacinto Waste pits were used into the 1960s to store waste that was taken by barge to the site from a paper mill. The site was originally on the riverbank in eastern Harris County, but over time, subsidence, dredging and construction of the Interstate Highway 10 bridge altered the path of the river and the site became partially submerged.

The pits became a federal Superfund site in 2008 and were capped in 2011 partly in response to fears of damage from hurricanes.

But the companies responsible for the clean-up -McGinnis Industrial Maintenance Corp, Waste Management Inc and International Paper Co. , have said they will oppose a removal plan as too risky for the environment. The companies are likely to use their latest sediment samples to bolster an argument that reinforcing the existing cap is the best way to protect the river, its residents and the Galveston Bay itself.

" In the new sampling results, dioxins and furans were found to be well within the range of concentrations of these toxins measured in sediment in the area prior to Hurricane Harvey and found in background levels generally in the San Jacinto River," their statement says.

However, additional samples of water and sediments are still being tested - and preliminary results of the water samples appear to confirm that there was a leak, said Rock Owens, an assistant Harris County attorney who was briefed on some of the ongoing work Thursday.

Scott Jones, Director of Advocacy of the Galveston Bay Foundation, argued that the tests were conducted weeks after the storm - and the companies still lack data needed to assure the public whether dioxin escaped or contaminated sediments migrated at the height of the flooding. He and others also remain concerned about the vulnerability of the cap to future storms.

Jones said he fears the storm likely disturbed "hot spots" of dioxins that already had traveled from the pits into other parts of the ecosystem and been mapped by local researchers from the University of Houston."You can try to sample after the fact - but that you can't collect what has been released at the time," he said.