Waste shipments will go to Ohio site
Jackson Lee: Remaining tainted water from train fire will no longer be sent to Deer Park
Norfolk Southern Corp. will resume shipping hazardous waste from the East Palestine, Ohio, train derailment fire to two approved sites in Ohio after the Environmental Protection Agency ended its pause on transporting the contaminated liquid, U.S. Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee said Monday.
Much of the Ohio wastewater has been sent over 1,300 miles away to a disposal facility in Deer Park. That has stopped, for now, the Houston congresswoman’s office said.
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency did not respond to requests for comment Monday.
The Ohio Environmental Protection Agency deferred comment to its federal counterpart, noting the national agency is overseeing the waste disposal process because it must be disposed of at a federally licensed facility.
Some Harris County officials have said they are keeping a close eye on the disposal process. Precinct 2 Commissioner Adrian Garcia said he would “closely monitor the situation to make sure people aren’t put in any risk.” Others said they had not been notified the hazardous waste would be coming to Deer Park, including County Judge Lina Hidalgo, who held a news conference last Thursday to demand more information.
While the vinyl chloride-tainted liquids have been unwelcome by many in the community, vinyl chloride is produced in Gulf Coast chemical plants annually to the tune of more than 2 billion gallons per year as part of a growing plastics market projected to reach $160 billion over the next decade.
“It stands to reason that the facilities that are able to deal with disposal would also be here,” said Chris Mudd, managing director for Chiron Financial, a
Houston-based energy investment banking firm. “Because this is where the virgin material gets produced.”
The chemical, used to make polyvinyl chloride, or PVC, is made primarily in plants along the Texas and Louisiana Gulf Coast, which ship the dangerous substance by rail to factories around the country to make everyday plastic items such as credit cards, electronics and toys, as well as construction materials. While vinyl chloride is a known carcinogen, PVC is not, according to the National Institutes of Health.
The nation’s largest producers of vinyl chloride are Houston-based companies Westlake and Oxy-Vinyls, which is a subsidiary of Houston oil giant Occidental Petroleum, according to Kristen Hays, S&P Global Commodity Insights’ global market lead. The other makers are Shintech and Formosa Plastics USA.
The known carcinogen long has held a presence in Houston — in soils near Houston’s railyards, in groundwater and in floodwaters after Hurricane Harvey. Exposure can increase the risk of cancer in the liver, brain and lungs, according to the National Cancer Institute.
More than 1.7 million gallons of contaminated liquid had been removed from the immediate site of the derailment as of last Thursday, Ohio EPA spokesperson James Lee said then.
“Of this, 1,133,933 gallons have been hauled off-site, with most going to Texas Molecular, a hazardous waste disposal facility in Texas,” Lee said. “A smaller amount of waste has been directed to Vickery Environmental in Vickery, Ohio.”
U.S. Rep. Sylvia Garcia, who represents the East End of Houston but not the Deer Park area, said at a Thursday town hall meeting that local officials were correct to seek further information, though she said she could not talk specifically about the incoming contaminated materials.
“There are people, like the county judge, asking questions about it,” Garcia said. “I can understand their concern and their questions.”
Hidalgo was not available for comment on Monday, her office said.
In the wake of Hidalgo’s concerns, Jackson Lee, a Houston Democrat who does not represent the Deer Park area, announced on Saturday the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency was pausing the wastewater shipments from the Ohio site.
“This process of dumping toxic waste in communities without prior notice to local cities and counties has to stop,” Jackson Lee’s office tweeted Saturday.
By Monday, the EPA had given Norfolk Southern permission to resume shipping hazardous waste from the derailment site. The toxic waste is now being directed to two sites in Ohio, her office confirmed.
On Feb. 4, more than three dozen Norfolk Southern freight cars — including 11 carrying hazardous materials — derailed near East Palestine, near the Pennsylvania border, prompting an evacuation because of a potential explosion from the wreckage. Officials intentionally released and burned vinyl chloride from five rail cars, sending flames and smoke into the sky. Officials were trying to avoid an uncontrolled blast, but it left residents concerned about the long-term health effects.