Our own Jackie Medcalf will be a speaker at the Society of Environmental Journalists Annual Conference, hosted by Rice University! 

Thursday, March 31, 2022 
9:30 a.m. departure ($60 fee, lunch included)

Tour 8. Superfunds: Climate Threats and Corporate Stonewalling

We’ll tour the San Jacinto Waste Pits and the French Limited Superfund Sites, both along the San Jacinto River, and hear from attorneys and activists who have been pushing for a clean-up of the waste pits, which have dumped dioxin into Galveston Bay and continued to leak during recent hurricanes. Despite Houston’s urban industry, the San Jacinto River still has historic towns where residents used to enjoy fishing and boating and who struggle to co-exist with Superfund threats. We’ll stop in a historic Freedman’s town, have lunch at a BBQ place and tour two or three Superfund sites to spotlight one of several areas in the U.S. where multiple superfund sites are clustered in heavily populated low-lying areas. Often these sites were not properly capped or cleaned up especially in light of changes in flood plain maps, stronger hurricanes and sea level rise. Total drive time: 1.5 hours.

Tour Leaders:
Lise Olsen, Senior Reporter and Editor, Environment and Investigations, Texas Observer
Dianna Wray, Freelance Journalist

Speakers:
Rodrigo Cantú, Environmental Justice Attorney, Lone Star Legal Aid
Caroline Crow, Staff Attorney, Lone Star Legal Aid
Rock Owens, Assistant District Attorney, Harris County (retired)
Jackie Young-Medcalf, Executive Director, Texas Health and Environment Alliance

Learn more about the #SEJ2022 Annual Conference – Houston at https://conference2022.sej.org/.