Dive Brief:

• Waste Management of Texas, Waste Management Inc. and McGinnes Industrial Maintenance Corporation (MIMC) "have been involved in some community engagement efforts relating to the ongoing remediation of" the San Jacinto Waste Pits, according to court documents filed in December, as reported by The Baytown Sun and Fox 26. Those entities have been identified as the responsible parties for the San Jacinto Superfund site clean-up.
• The involved community groups were identified as KeepItCapped.org, the San Jacinto Citizens Against Pollution and the Galveston Maritime Business Association. The Environmental Protection Agency's current plan is to remove toxic dioxin from the site; these community groups want to keep the cap in place.
• A spokesperson from the Waste Management companies said in an emailed statement, "Counsel for MIMC and the Waste Management entities advised the Court in December that they had just learned that an additional PR firm had been retained to assist MIMC with advice and community outreach efforts relating to the proposed EPA remedy for the San Jacinto Superfund site. The companies do not believe that the community outreach efforts are relevant to the personal injury or property claims involved in the pending litigation. MIMC continues to engage constructively with EPA in the remedial design phase of the selected remedy for the site."

Dive Insight:

EPA's current plan to remove the toxic material from under the pits is likely to be a costlier endeavor than fortifying and keeping in place an existing cap. The agency's website says the estimate for the cleanup is $115 million, a price that, because of how the Superfund operates, would have to be footed by the responsible parties, since they have been identified. 

The community groups opposed to removal say opening the cap will expose the the river to more dioxin than leaving the cap in place would. EPA says removing the waste "provides certainty to people living near the site by permanently addressing risk posed by the contamination."

While the San Jacinto Waste Pits Superfund Site was chosen as one of EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt's sites for "immediate" action, there is still potential for work to be stalled. Ongoing negotiations between EPA and the responsible parties are delaying a consent decree, though the order for cleanup came in Oct. 2017.

While cleanup at San Jacinto may be stalled, the site has already spurred some federal action. Because the cap was partially damaged during 2017's hurricane season, the Government Accountability Office (GAO) announced in December it was opening an investigation to see if federal Superfund sites are adequately secured to protect human health and the environment following natural disasters. An official with GAO told Waste Dive earlier in January that work would start "in the next couple months," and that GAO reviews generally take about a year.