HOUSTON – The conversations surrounding the Fifth Ward cancer cluster continue for dozens of residents in that Houston neighborhood.
A meeting with the Environmental Protection Agency is expected to take place Thursday evening to discuss the testing that the agency is conducting around the Union Pacific Rail Yard.
Residents are invited to attend the meeting at the Carl Walker Jr. Multi-Purpose Center at 4300 Noble St. on Thursday from 6 to 7:30 p.m.
What is the Fifth Ward cancer cluster?
KPRC 2 has been covering the cancer cluster in Houston’s Fifth Ward for years. It has affected hundreds of families and is an issue for which we continually work to get answers for our community.
Residents say their concerns span decades. They want leaders at the Union Pacific Railroad to do more to contain and remove creosote contamination at and surrounding the old rail yard at Liberty and Lockwood.
Sandra Edwards spoke with KPRC 2′s Rilwan Balogun about her disappointment with how Union Pacific has handled this situation.
“Show us that you care and do something! The wait game. The wait game. We’re tired of wait game,” she said.
Edwards also told KPRC 2 that her friend and fellow Fifth Ward resident died from cancer overnight.
“I’m feeling heartbroken. I’m feeling sad. I’m feeling emotional because I just lost a... lifelong friend.”
Overall, neighbors want Union Pacific to take responsibility for the health problems they say have been deadly and plagued their community for years.
“Union Pacific has taken no responsibility for the health costs,” one resident said in a previous meeting.
For years, rail crews cleaned rail ties at the site with creosote, which is a known cancer-causing chemical.
The issue now is whether the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality should approve Union Pacific’s permit proposal to clean up, which is a process that representatives from Union Pacific say already has been effective.
“The data shows that the community is not exposed to the contamination,” said Kevin Pterburs with Union Pacific Railroad back in 2022, according to reports.
Union Pacific’s proposal includes building a 3,400-foot-long underground barrier, which they say will stop the spread of contaminated water. They plan to also install more collection wells and continue to monitor and inspect contamination caps.
But residents say that’s not enough. Dozens of residents said their relatives have died from cancer, which is proof, they say, the contaminant plume has spread.
A report released in back January 2021 also showed that children in that area were sickened with Leukemia at nearly five times the expected rate.
Casey Luckett-Snyder with the Environmental Protection Agency says Thursday’s meeting will address how the EPA uses its test results to evaluate the level of contamination, and who is responsible for it.
“We’ll be taking the information from the testing that began last November and will continue to do through this summer and we’ll be taking that data and information, we’ll be evaluating it and will be determining if it’s a risk to people’s health, and that will help us know what our next action is,” Luckett-Snyder said.
For residents like Sandra Edwards, the EPA is a welcome presence in Fifth Ward.
“We have people that care in the EPA. They’re not just being on the site. They care about us. They call us to see how we’re doing. They have a relationship with us. What Union Pacific should have with us. You’re in our community. You don’t have a relationship with us. You’re not trying to see if we’re okay,” Edwards said.
Former Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner has called on Union Pacific and state agencies to get involved and care for these families.
At the time, Turner requested that Union Pacific step up and relocate affected residents while creating a buffer between contaminated areas and homes in the neighborhood.
In his first week in office in January 2024, Houston’s current mayor John Whitmire went before city council and asked for additional details before uprooting residents in that community.