Jeanne Javadi, P.E. with the Texas Department of Transportation, was present at the meeting to offer information from TxDOT. Javadi will be working on the massive I-10 corridor project set to begin soon. Photo by David Taylor
By David Taylor / Managing Editor
One of the most powerful agencies in the U.S. government made their way to the San Jacinto Community Center in Highlands to deliver information to the community and listen to their concerns particularly about the ongoing plan of action for remediation of the northern impoundment.
“The community involvement plan is a communication tool,” they told the audience of more than 100 in attendance. “It’s not a technical tool, so a lot of the information about the site, technical information will not be in the community involvement plan.”
With that introduction, EPA representative Robert Appelt, remedial project manager, U.S. EPA Region 6, summarized their success with the recently completed southern impoundment and then covered where they were in the remediation process for the northern section.
Appelt has been working on the project for the last three years as a professional geoscientist with the EPA.
“We’ve been very busy this last year and we’ve made a lot of progress,” he said.
Appelt explained the area is broken up into three general areas: the southern impoundment, the northern impoundment, and the sand separation area.
The site was built in the mid-1960s for disposal of paper mill waste. Both the northern and southern impoundments cover about 15 acres each and were left contaminated with dioxins and furans, the two primary contaminants.
“You’ll hear this word BMP a lot, which really means it’s best management practice,” he said.
The San Jacinto River Waste Pits site was added to the National Priorities Superfund site in 2008.
The goal is to remove waste from the northern and southern impoundments for offsite disposal and prevent releases into the river during excavation with a wall.
In October 2017 they received a Record of Decision and by April 2018 had received the Remedial design (RD) Administrative Settlement Agreement and Order.
By November 2021, the Remedial Action work plan was approved and construction completed in May of 2024. By August 2024, the draft RA report was received and is under review.
Field activities included removing 150,000 tons of impacted material transported and disposed of off-site which added up to approximately 9,045 loads of impacted material removed. About 13,000 truckloads of clean fill imported and placed on-site and at least 1.4 million gallons of contaminated water treated.
“This involved over 100,000-man hours of labor, a significant undertaking,” Appelt said.
The Remedial Action Report will be posted to the San Jacinto River Waste Pits website.
Then they turned their attention to the Northern impoundment which wasn’t satisfactory.
“The EPA instead decided that we were going to take a much stronger enforcement stance on the project. In January, we sent them notification that the 90 percent design which had been submitted the previous year was seriously deficient,” Appelt said.
The responsible parties then responded in a letter on January 25, 2024, addressing the deficiencies. After some back and forth, the responsible parties ultimately delivered a 100 percent plan that comes close to what they are looking for.
“There were substantial improvements including the revised excavation of surfaces consistent with ROD cleanup levels,” he said, “and the removal of capping from consideration, and plans to address storms, overtopping, barge strikes, scour, and heave,” he said.
Other issues that were raised included coordination between Texas Department of Public Safety (a real concern) and implementation of the remedial design, water management, and confirmation sampling.
“To keep them on task, we required the responsible parties to submit portions of the 100 percent Remedial Design at 30, 60, and 90 days after issuance of the EPA response,” the EPA representative said.
Concerns from the audience included hurricanes.
“Nobody can account for a hurricane, in terms of building this containment, but what they did do is they upped the wall height,” Appelt said. The water will also be treated year-round.
Another community concern was coordination with TxDOT once the I-10 bridge corridor begins construction.
“That is going to be an ongoing process. Our coordination with TxDOT won’t stop until both projects are completed. Because even after, if we get done before they do, we still need to coordinate with them to make sure that they don’t disturb the remedy,” the EPA rep said. He said there would be a significant amount of coordination.
“The current letting date is September 2027 however, they have to secure all the funding first,” said Jeanne Javadi, P.E. with Texas Department of Transportation who is working on the I-10 project and attended the EPA meeting.
“We want it done soon because the old bridge was struck,” she said and was closed for months of repairs.
Javadi also said it would be a massive rebuild from Magnolia to Thompson Road with a lot of additional lanes including some managed lanes.
Residents also presented numerous issues to the EPA rep, many of which they were unaware of and promised to look into them with their help.
Appelt concluded the meeting promising more community involvement with meetings in the near future.
For more information, visit https://www.epa.gov/tx/sjrwp.
Carolyn Stone, founder for Channelview Health Improvement Coalition, was prepared with numer-ous questions for Appelt and other EPA representatives. Photo by David Taylor
Robert Appelt, remedial project manager, U.S. EPA Region 6 gave a brief presentation on the remedi-ation projects at the southern and northern impoundments. Photo by David Taylor
Source