Texas Residents Blame Oil Producer for Mysterious Illnesses

By: Duane Craig

“Respiratory problems, stomach issues, heart issues, fatigue and aches and pains” top residents lists of ailments in the Cherry Creek subdivision in Shepherd, Texas, according to this Eastex Advocate article. One resident even claims to be waking up at night with chest pains and vomiting. Residents claim an oil producer nearby, Famcor, is the source of air pollution, or other contamination, that is making them sick.

The Texas Commission on Environmental Quality was on the case looking for air quality issues while the Texas Railroad Commission, which is supposed to handle investigations into soil and water contamination, had been elusive about answering questions related to their activities in the case -- at least at the time the article referenced above was published. One resident claimed to be told by an official of the agency that it didn’t have enough people to regulate all the businesses it is supposed to oversee and that some of its required inspections were years behind schedule.

TCEQ says it hasn’t found any air quality violations and has monitored the area on seven occasions, even using infrared cameras at times. The suspect company has a permit that allows it to release a certain amount of pollution. The investigation and air quality testing continues.

18 years later cleanup planned for Texas Superfund site

February 8, 2008 - Eighteen years after a toxic waste plume was found seeping into the groundwater near Levelland, federal officials have released a proposed cleanup plan for the site.

One of just a few Superfund sites in the Texas Panhandle and South Plains region, the Hockley County groundwater plume captured the attention of federal officials due to the severity of the contamination and proximity to public water sources.

"In this case, you have a pretty widespread effect on the Ogallala Aquifer," said Vince Malott, a remedial project manager with the EPA who is overseeing the site.

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Group concerned with heightened cancer and chronic illness in two Texas communities looking closely at groundwater contamination

February 3, 2008 - Those concerned with heightened cancer and chronic illness in Zavalla and lakeside communities are looking closely at the possibility of groundwater contamination by Lufkin-area industries sitting on top the recharge zone for the minor aquifer that provides drinking water to these communities.

After water quality is examined, the group known as Concerned Citizens of Zavalla intends to look at potential air pollution and soil contamination. The group agreed water quality was the easiest place to start.

While state and city officials oversee testing, the group is focused on compiling a local database of all cancer cases known in the area based on surveys they have disseminated to the public.

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Texas lawsuits links cancer and birth defects to contamination from industrial activities

January 7, 2008 - One of many lawsuits against Burlington Northern Santa Fe Corp. claiming a railroad tie factory poisoned residents in the small town of Somerville, causing cancer and birth defects, is set to go to trial in Fort Worth this week.

The suit was filed by Linda and Donnie Faust, two of the dozens of people living in the Central Texas town who have sued the Fort Worth-based railroad company over a railroad tie factory owned by a predecessor firm until 1995.

The Fausts say creosote and other dangerous substances released by the factory helped cause Ms. Faust's devastating stomach cancer. Donnie Faust has worked at the plant near the Fausts' home since 1974.

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Water Contamination and Health in Zavalla Texas

December 16, 2007 - The rural, forested camp life Guy Papania and his family enjoyed outside Zavalla seemed a healthy lifestyle change from their hometown of Port Neches, Papania told the 60 people seated beside him.

Knowing of his hometown's record-setting cancer rates, and having seen half his former high school classmates diagnosed with one form or another of the disease, Papania and his wife decided seven months ago to make their Zavalla-area camp their permanent home.

Then he learned how the small town he has come to call home has its own history of cancer and other illnesses — particularly among its youth. Familiar with the effects of industrial pollution through his own businesses, the father of three small children is still marveling at the irony of his decision.

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Residents of Texas neighborhood get their time with EPA

November 28, 2007 - "I always thought something was being done about the contamination that exists here," said resident Jose Chavez. But after getting throat cancer, he realized this was not true, he said. Chavez asked the representatives from the Environmental Protection Agency to do more.

The EPA hearing in the eastside neighborhood of Manchester on Tuesday drew more than 50 speakers. The EPA asked speakers to come forward in pairs, leading to strange duos like Chavez and the lawyer, Jeff Holmstead.

There were other dramatic moments. One woman said she had just started chemotherapy that very morning. She blamed benzene and other toxic chemicals for her leukemia. Another woman broke down, saying her sister, who had lymphoma and grew up near the Houston Ship Channel, was a human being, not an "acceptable health risk." There was talk about "environmental justice" for "fence-line communities," the neighborhoods where people live just blocks from towering petroleum refineries.

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Texas State officials investigating Dallas over hazards posed by landfills

November 19, 2007 -

DALLAS - State environmental officials are investigating the city of Dallas over the continuing hazards posed by two former landfills.

The tops of the landfills, which are located near the Trinity River and South Loop 12, are starting to erode and leak pollutants and deadly gas that pose an ongoing hazard.

Mounds of trash filled the illegal landfill, which is located at the soon-to-be site of the Trinity River Audubon Center, with hazardous wastes, which for decades was an unwanted neighbor for many living nearby.

The city of Dallas did little to nothing about it until Harold Cox filed a lawsuit.

"I was treated unfairly," he said. "I was treated deceptively."

When Cox and his neighbors won their lawsuit, the city removed, covered and remediated what was, up until the last year, still an environmental hazard.

But now, another former dump located right next door is posing new problems.

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Denton Texas landowners wonder what they have unknowingly been exposed to

November 11, 2007 - In addition to allowing the industry to self-monitor, Texas Railroad Commission rules don’t require a landowner be notified if decontamination work is being done. Moreover, if the contaminated material is diluted to meet state limits, the operator is not required to notify either the state or the landowner to bury contaminated material on site.

News that special crews pulled up to an existing gas well on Jason Zimmerman’s land in March to decontaminate 10 barrels of radioactive residue came as a surprise to him.

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Is Underground Chemical Plume Causing High Cancer Rates in Bexar County Texas?

September 18, 2007 - Vilma Moran seemed an unlikely candidate for cirrhosis of the liver, which her doctor said explained her swollen abdomen and yellowing eyes. In her 60 years of life, she had consumed probably 10 alcoholic beverages. She didn't smoke, didn't have hepatitis.

She was diabetic, which is a risk factor. But when it was found later that she had liver cancer, the surgeon asked if she'd ever worked in a chemical plant. The type of cancer she had suggested a chemical exposure, he said. No, she told him, she worked with special education children at Lowell Middle School.

Then she and her husband recalled a letter they had received four years earlier, inviting them to a neighborhood meeting to discuss a plume of contaminated groundwater linked to the shuttered Kelly AFB. They had ignored the invitation. She had lived near Kelly almost all her life. Her father had maintained the base golf course.

In February 2006, Moran attended another neighborhood meeting from her wheelchair. She listened as Tim Aldrich of East Tennessee State University, an expert in cancer clusters, announced he had been hired to look into reports of elevated liver cancer in neighborhoods surrounding Kelly.

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Texas residents learn their water is contaminated

July 25, 2007 - Residents got a letter stating the "water being supplied to customers had exceeded the maximum contaminant level."

This means the combination of chemicals and chlorine in the drinking water is causing high levels of acids, which could cause "an increased risk of getting cancer."

The Texas Commission of Environmental Quality says the letter they sent out is standard. But because Edcouch has had water problems before, TCEQ is asking the people who live here to be vigilant.

A report was also sent with the letter. It tells residents the people most likely affected by the water would be the elderly and young children, who have weak immune systems.

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Lingering endeavor to rid several Texas neighborhoods of poisonous metals continues

July 1, 2007 - Several more homes in the Kern Place neighborhood found to be contaminated with lead and arsenic are undergoing an Asarco-led soil remediation -- the latest step in a lingering endeavor to rid several neighborhoods of poisonous metals.

In addition, soil from nearly two dozen homes in Sunland Park will be removed and replaced because of elevated levels of arsenic and lead, according to the Associated Press.

Environmental Protection Agency scientists and other experts believe Asarco contaminated homes near the plant with toxic metals throughout the company's 100-plus years of copper smelting in El Paso. Asarco officials have said they're not so sure.

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The Terrible Plight of Mission Texas

June 29, 2007 - For decades this community has been plagued by cancer and birth defects, a trail of human suffering that residents are convinced stems from the pesticide-processing plant that operated in the neighborhood from 1950 to 1972. Since the facility closed, attempts to remove toxic residues and compensate residents have repeatedly foundered.

As the bus set forth at 5:30 a.m. on May 2, residents hoped this time would be different. They were traveling to Austin to ask lawmakers for a resolution encouraging the Texas Supreme Court to decide a case that has languished since 1999. The mass toxic tort is against Hayes-Sammons Chemical Co. and a slew of other big firms affiliated with the processing facility and a large warehouse a half-mile away. Federal and state environmental agencies have found significant contamination at both sites, but a jury has yet to hear arguments in the case while the court works through legal technicalities. In the meantime, plaintiffs have died waiting for the trial.

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Texas Town Confronts Water Contamination

May 22, 2007 - Studies performed at the city-owned T-Bar Ranch well field have found elevated levels of chlorides in the water which city officials believe may have resulted from an oil and gas company that maintains a saltwater disposal facility and evaporation pit nearby.

Today, the City Council will consider authorizing the filing of a complaint with the Texas Railroad Commission against Heritage Standard Company in order to positively determine whether any of the company's activities have resulted in contamination of the city's future water supply and to ensure that steps are taken to alleviate the problem.

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Texas Families Horrified by Toxic Waste Under Their Yards

April 12, 2007 - Two feet below the inviting backyard was a sludge pit bubbling toxic waste

John and Kimberly Brooks bought their home in February 1997 for $182,500. With plans to start a family, they fell in love with the lot's huge backyard. Years later, they learned about the unlined sludge pit bubbling toxic waste residue less than two feet below.

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Lavaca Bay Restored

A good news story out of Texas!

"March 28 - PORT LAVACA, Texas — Longtime resident Tiney Browning remembers when people stopped fishing here and stopped ordering fish at restaurants because of the mercury that Alcoa Inc. dumped into Lavaca Bay in the 1960s. On Wednesday, she celebrated her town's rebirth." More . . .