{"id":36487,"date":"2014-05-07T11:35:29","date_gmt":"2014-05-07T16:35:29","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/?p=36487"},"modified":"2014-05-07T11:36:19","modified_gmt":"2014-05-07T16:36:19","slug":"harris-county-urges-epa-to-order-cleanup-of-dioxin-pits","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/2014\/05\/07\/harris-county-urges-epa-to-order-cleanup-of-dioxin-pits\/","title":{"rendered":"Harris County Urges EPA To Order Cleanup Of Dioxin Pits"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"attachment_36490\"  class=\"wp-caption module image right\" style=\"max-width: 300px;\"><a class=\"fancybox\" title=\"A map of the dioxin pits near the San Jacinto River.\" href=\"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/files\/2014\/05\/map-b.jpg\" rel=\"\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-36490\" alt=\"A map of the dioxin pits near the San Jacinto River.\" src=\"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/files\/2014\/05\/map-b-300x194.jpg\" width=\"300\" height=\"194\" srcset=\"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/files\/2014\/05\/map-b-300x194.jpg 300w, https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/files\/2014\/05\/map-b-620x401.jpg 620w, https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/files\/2014\/05\/map-b.jpg 720w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/a><p class=\"wp-media-credit\">EPA<\/p><p class=\"wp-caption-text\">A map of the dioxin pits near the San Jacinto River.<\/p><\/div>\n<h4><em><a href=\"http:\/\/www.houstonpublicmedia.org\/news\/harris-co-urges-epa-to-order-cleanup-of-dioxin-pits\/\">From Houston Public Media:\u00a0<\/a><\/em><\/h4>\n<p>The Harris County Attorney is urging the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to order the cleanup of a local Superfund site.<\/p>\n<p>Tuesday, Vince Ryan\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.harriscountytx.gov\/cmpdocuments\/caoimages\/NRRBLetter050114.pdf\" target=\"_blank\">formally made the request<\/a>\u00a0for the agency to force the companies responsible for pulling the San Jacinto River to remove the worst-contaminated soil.<\/p>\n<p>If you&#8217;ve ever driven across the San Jacinto River on I-10, you&#8217;ve passed through one of the most polluted parts of the country. That&#8217;s where International Paper, along with Waste Management,\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.epa.gov\/region6\/6sf\/texas\/san_jacinto\/\" target=\"_blank\">dumped tons of dioxin \u2013 a byproduct of paper production.<\/a><\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"100%\" height=\"166\" scrolling=\"no\" frameborder=\"no\" src=\"https:\/\/w.soundcloud.com\/player\/?url=https%3A\/\/api.soundcloud.com\/tracks\/148195823&amp;color=ff5500&amp;auto_play=false&amp;hide_related=false&amp;show_artwork=true\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>&#8220;The pits themselves are only twelve acres.\u00a0 But the area around it is several hundred acres that&#8217;s got contamination, and the dioxin itself has spread to all of Galveston Bay,&#8221; said\u00a0special assistant Harris County Attorney Terrence O&#8217;Rourke.<!--more--><\/p>\n<p>Right now, those twelve acres are covered by rocks and plastic tarps. The Harris County Attorney&#8217;s office is asking the EPA to order Waste Management and International Paper to dig out and remove the dioxin pits.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;If you take a look at the conditions that were there just a few years ago, and what&#8217;s there now, it&#8217;s simply unacceptable to have, just, literally, reservoirs of toxic dioxin sitting there, waiting for a hurricane,&#8221; O&#8217;Rourke said.<\/p>\n<p>The EPA&#8217;s National Remedy Review board will consider the county&#8217;s request to order the dioxin removal this summer. A final decision is expected by the end of the year. In the meantime,\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.harriscountytx.gov\/cmpdocuments\/caoimages\/20140205SanJacintoWastePitsThird%20Amended%20Petition.pdf\" target=\"_blank\">Harris County has a lawsuit pending<\/a>\u00a0against both International Paper and Waste Management seeking hundreds of millions of dollars in civil penalties.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>From Houston Public Media:\u00a0 The Harris County Attorney is urging the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to order the cleanup of a local Superfund site. Tuesday, Vince Ryan\u00a0formally made the request\u00a0for the agency to force the companies responsible for pulling the San Jacinto River to remove the worst-contaminated soil. If you&#8217;ve ever driven across the San [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":50,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[59],"tags":[96,39],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36487"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/50"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=36487"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36487\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":36493,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36487\/revisions\/36493"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=36487"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=36487"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=36487"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}