EPA holds meeting updating Fifth Ward residents on testing for toxic chemicals

HOUSTON – The Environmental Protection Agency held another meeting in Houston’s Fifth Ward providing an update on the agency’s testing regarding toxic chemicals in the area.

The area was designated as a cancer cluster in 2019 when it was found that significantly higher than normal diagnoses of the deadly disease were found among residents of the Fifth Ward and Kashmere Gardens neighborhoods.

In Thursday’s meeting, the EPA updated residents on vapor intrusion, soil, and stormwater testing in the area.

Vapor intrusion is when underground contamination in soil and groundwater evaporate and build up inside buildings.

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Some of the results have already been published while the rest are pending. You can see those here.

For the soil contamination study, the EPA says the background study, or the study into contamination of public areas, is complete.

The EPA’s testing found six of the 20 locations tested came back with low level exceedances of EPA residential screening levels of contaminants. All six of those locations exceeded screening levels for benzo(a)pyrene, a common chemical in urban, industrialized areas and vehicle exhaust. You can view the background study results here.

The EPA is still waiting on results for 1,300 residential samples. Those should start being released in January 2025.

The agency said they will begin testing if creosote related contaminants are present in drainage areas and the sampling will run from Nov. 18 - Nov. 27.

You can see all the presentation material from Thursday night’s meeting here.

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