San Jac Polluters: You’ve had enough time to clean up your mess!
The EPA is taking a big step that could result in it taking control of the cleanup of the San Jacinto River Waste Pits Superfund Site. On January 5th, the agency sent a letter to International Paper and Waste Management’s subsidiary, McGinnes Industrial Maintenance Corporation, saying their plan to remove contaminated material from the Northern Pit was “seriously deficient.” The EPA gave them 20 days (meaning a deadline of Thursday, January 25) to come up with a plan that meets the EPA’s requirements. If the EPA is still not satisfied, the agency can take the rare step of removing the responsible parties from the process and send them the bill for cleaning up the site.
Background: In 2018, the companies signed a settlement agreement, saying that they would develop a plan that met the EPA’s requirements. Since then the planning process has dragged on for more than five years, including 725 days of delays that were requested by the responsible parties. At the heart of the delay is the responsible parties’ agenda to leave waste in the river and the EPA and community demand for a plan that removes the contaminated material, including dioxin, from the site
The letter that the EPA sent on January fifth includes more than 40 pages of documentation of the areas where International Paper and McGinnes have failed to live up to the requirements of the settlement agreement.
What This Means: The Superfund Law was written to encourage polluters to be actively engaged in cleaning up the toxic waste sites they are responsible for. The EPA has the final say, but the Responsible Parties usually come up with the plans and perform the cleanup operations, under the EPA’s oversight. This allows the Responsible Parties to control their costs and show they want to be good citizens. However, if the polluters don’t act in good faith, the EPA has the power to take over the cleanup, force the companies to pay the bills and even sue for triple damages if the companies are not responsive.
The EPA almost never does that. It is rare for the agency to take over at the cleanup stage and it is almost unheard of for the agency to take over because the companies failed to produce an acceptable plan. That is exactly what the EPA says happened in the case of International Paper and McGinnes.
Public Outcry: In its letter to the Responsible Parties, the EPA describes the community’s desire to stop delaying the cleanup. In fact, the EPA refers to discussion at THEA community coalition meetings and comments that were submitted to the agency.
Following the release of the letter, THEA founder and CEO Jackie Medcalf joined Harris County Commissioner Tom Ramsey in a news conference to talk about why the EPA is making the right decision. “Did you know two-thirds of the Waste Pit is gone? What happened to it? It washed down the river. In my opinion, these Irresponsible Parties, the responsible parties are not responsible,” Ramsey said. Jackie Medcalf added, “At every turn, I have watched the responsible parties push for leaving the dioxin contaminated waste in the river.”
You can watch a short recap of that briefing put together by the Commissioner’s office here.
The Houston Chronicle, Baytown Sun and ABC13 Houston prepared very good reports about the EPA’s decision.
Coalition Meeting: We will hold our next Coalition Meeting tonight
Tuesday January 23 at 6:30 pm
If the area is still under a flood watch, we anticipate delaying the meeting and instead providing a virtual option for updating the coalition.