Fifth Ward

Fifth Ward Changes EPA Decision

The Fifth Ward Chapter of Mothers for Clean Air has scored a major success in the clean-up of a hazardous waste site in its community. Comments made by the chapter in response to the Environmental Protection Agency’s proposal for clean-up influenced the EPA to change its decision to a more extensive clean-up of the Many Diversified Interests (MDI) Superfund site that sits across the street from an elementary school.

The chapter worked with a consultant, hired through an EPA grant, to submit its technical comments. Chapter members wrote their own comments and also asked other interested parties to write letters. The EPA was “bombarded with a lot of comments…We got your comments and we listened to you,” said Stacey Bennet, Remedial Project Manager for the site. She added, “The comments showed what were the real concerns of the community and were instrumental in getting EPA to reconsider its proposal and get it more in agreement with what the community wanted.”

The MDI Superfund site is a 36-acre tract that formerly accommodated a metal casting foundry and was later leased to a chemical recycling operation. The site is contaminated with heavy metals, primarily lead, and organic chemicals. Elevated blood lead levels have been measure in children who live near the Superfund site.

The site will now be cleaned up to a level that will support the redevelopment proposed by the community. Chapter members participated in a Reuse Assessment to determine the community’s recommendation for future redevelopment of the site. The community decided on mixed use with single-family and multi-family housing, associated recreation, a community center, and neighborhood scale commercial uses. The Reuse Assessment was led by the City of Houston and was funded by the EPA.

Alvin Byrd, a long-time resident of the Fifth Ward believes that the changed decision would not have happened without the Mothers for Clean Air chapter. He said, “The value is immeasurable in order for us to get information first hand. It brings a ray of hope that was dimmed at the last meeting.”

EPA Proposes Clean Up of MDI Superfund Site

The Fifth Ward Chapter of Mothers for Clean Air has been closely watching the clean up of the Many Diversified Interests (MDI) Superfund site with the help of a consultant hired through an EPA Technical Assistance Grant. The MDI site is a 36-acre abandoned steel castings and catalyst recycling operation contaminated with lead and other heavy metals directly across the street from Bruce Elementary School in the Fifth Ward. EPA solicited comments about their preferred alternative for cleaning up the MDI site, which will leave contaminated soil underneath existing pavement and foundations. The Fifth Ward Chapter believes that this alternative would reduce the chances for proper redevelopment of the site. The refore, in consultation with Sound Environmental Solutions, the Fifth Ward Chapter proposed an additional alternative that will remove all contamination to a depth of 3 feet to an approved location off site. EPA is currently considering this and other comments in making their final decision.

Restricted Area in the Fifth Ward

Georgia Lee is 87 and still active in community issues in the Fifth Ward. Her friend, Stella, believes Georgia Lee has wasted her time and that nothing has really changed since Stella left the Fifth Ward in 1986, after a major explosion. Georgia Lee on the other hand, is quick to point out that Mothers for Clean Air wouldn't be in the Fifth Ward if she had given up and not tried to make a difference.

Georgia Lee and Stella are the lead characters in Restricted Area , an original one-act play about the struggle for environmental justice in the Fifth Ward. The play focuses on the problems associated with the Many Diversified Interests (MDI) Superfund site. Restricted Area was written by Thomas Meloncon, well known for Diary of a Black Man , and was performed in the Fifth Ward and Galveston in August and will be put on again in Barrett Station this fall. Mr. Meloncon, a Fifth Ward resident rooted in the community, visited the Superfund site near Bruce Elementary and spoke to neighbors before writing the play.

Restricted Area is part of a pilot project, led by John Sullivan , Director of The ater Outreach and Education for the University of Texas Medical Branch (UTMB) NIEHS Center/Sealy Center for Environmental Health and Medicine. Another part of the pilot project was a Community Environmental Forum The ater at Bruce Elementary School in the spring. The Forum brought together twenty residents of the Fifth Ward and used theatrical tools to analyze their environmental situation. The Sunday afternoon performance was attended by fifty community members and scientists and physicians from UTMB. As a result of the Forum, Bruce Elementary has enrolled in other UTMB/NIEHS projects on indoor air quality and asthma.

Fifth Ward Chapter Educates Community

Members of the Fifth Ward Chapter have been active in the education of their community about environmental hazards, especially the MDI (Many Diversified Interests) Superfund site. MDI is a hazardous waste site located on a 36-acre tract in a residential area across the street from Bruce Elementary School . Operations at the site began in 1926 under the name Texas Electric Steel Casting Company (TESCO). In the 1980s, TESCO leased some of its land to Can-Am who used it to store about 5,300 drums of spent chemicals. By 1988, the stored drums were abandoned.

Last year, Mothers for Clean Air was awarded a grant from EPA to hire a technical advisor to guide the Fifth Ward Chapter through the Superfund process. In July 2002, MfCA hired Sound Environmental Solutions (SES) to read all technical documents related to MDI and prepare "lay language" reports for MfCA. SES will also speak at MfCA sponsored community meetings to educate others about MDI.

MDI is not the only environmental issue in the Fifth Ward, and members have been active in spreading the word about air and water issues too. On May 11, the Chapter co-sponsored an Environmental Expo with the Tuffly Park Advisory Board. Displays included a map of all permitted water and air dischargers in the Fifth Ward, how to use air monitoring buckets, and a demonstration on accessing EPA data. The Chapter also discussed environmental concerns with Councilman Carroll Robinson at a town hall meeting and had environmental booths at the B.O.N.D. sponsored Neighbor Night Out celebration, the Christian Health Coalition's Health Fair and a voter registration drive at Hester House. Members sit on the Superneighborhood Council, the MDI Redevelopment Board and the Christian Health Coalition. Officers are Anne Tillis, President, Joyce Punch, Vice-president and Carrie Nicholson, Secretary. Gloria McNeil and Hazel Thorpe have graciously consented to let the group use the Health Clinic on Lyons and Lockwood for their meetings on the first Tuesday of the month at 5:30 PM .

TAG Awarded to Fifth Ward

The U.S. EPA has awarded a technical assistance grant (TAG) to Mothers for Clean Air for the purpose of hiring a consultant to interpret reports about the clean-up of the Many Diversified Interests (MDI) Superfund site in the Fifth Ward. The consultant will work with the community members so they can better understand the process and have a voice as decisions are made.

The MDI site is contaminated with lead and other metals from a steel castings operation that began at the site in 1926. More recently, over 5000 barrels of used chemicals from refineries and chemical plants were stored on the property. Although the buildings on the site have been demolished and the barrels have been removed, the soil is still contaminated on the site across the street from an elementary school. A chain link fence surrounds the darkened soil and little vegetation is able to survive. The area outside the fence has become a dumping ground for tires, mattresses, couches and construction debris.

Mothers for Clean Air first became involved with the MDI site when it started a chapter organization in the Fifth Ward with an EPA Environmental Justice Grant in 1999. The Chapter conducted several educational activities centered around the MDI site. The Technical Assistance Grant will continue this process of educating the community and also will involve the citizens in making thoughtful, informed comments to EPA decision makers.

The grant award totaled $50,000 in federal funds and $12,500 in matching funds from MfCA over the estimated three year clean-up of the site. EPA awards one TAG per Superfund site to a community group for the purpose of hiring a technical advisor. Mothers for Clean Air will now begin the process of hiring an advisor to work with the Fifth Ward community.

Awarding of the TAG will be announced at a 7:00 meeting on October 29, 2001 at the Fifth Ward Multi-Service Center, 4014 Market Street.

Mothers Visit D.C.

Three members of Mothers for Clean Air (MfCA) attended the Clean Air Network (CAN) Conference in Washington, D.C. February 4 - 6, 2001. Jane Laping, MfCA project manager and two members of the Fifth Ward chapter, Charlotte Camacho and Gloria McNeil attended sessions ranging from "Clean Air's Most Wanted List" to e-organizing. The MfCA group also met with U. S. Representatives Sheila Jackson Lee and Gene Green, and Congressional aides to Ken Bentsen and Nick Lampson on Capital Hill. The clean air issues that the MfCA delegation discussed were the State Implementation Plan (SIP), rules on heavy-duty low-sulfur diesel fuel and Super Fund sites, the Clean Air Act, and the grandfather loophole for dirty, old coal plants. The trip was made possible through the help of CAN and the Galveston-Houston Association for Smog Prevention (GHASP).

The group learned that Representatives often hear from industry but rarely hear from their constituents. A Congressional aide for Nick Lampson said that the best thing that Mothers for Clean Air members can do is to let their Representatives know that they want clean air. Whether the message is delivered in person, by phone, in a handwritten or typed letter, or by e-mail doesn't matter. What is important is that your Representative hear from you.

You don't have to go to Washington to visit your representative; you can visit them while they are in their district. To find out who your Congressional Representative is and when they will be in town, log on to www.house.gov.

EJ Workshop in the Fifth Ward

The Fifth Ward Chapter of Mothers for Clean Air sponsored an Environmental Justice (EJ) Workshop for their community on June 24 at Tuffly Park in the Fifth Ward. The workshop consisted of a speakers panel, networking opportunities, and an awards presentation. Jane Laping, the MfCA community organizer, opened the workshop with an overview of the two environmental justice issues affecting the Fifth Ward: 1) five Superfund hazardous waste sites and 2) air pollution coming from the Houston Ship Channel, three heavily traveled freeways, and diesel trains.

Alan Etheredge from the Texas Natural Resource Conservation Commission (TNRCC), Judy Henry from the Texas Department of Health, Jerry Bluitt from the Mothers for Clean Air chapter in Barrett Station, and David Crossley of the Gulf Coast Institute were the speakers on the panel. Mr. Etheredge described the history of the MDI/Tesco Superfund site near Bruce Elementary and its clean- up. He expects it will take until 2004 to get the area clean enough for some type of development. Mr. Bluitt described Barrett Station's involvement in the clean-up of two Superfund hazardous waste sites near Crosby. His community received a grant from the EPA to hire a consultant who could understand what was being done and present it in layman's terms to the residents.

Mr. Crossley also spoke about ways a community can become involved in decisions affecting environmental justice. He emphasized the importance of making your voice heard, through letters and public hearings, for example. Ms. Henry explained how being affected by a contaminant, whether it be from a superfund site or air pollution, depends on exposure. She also mentioned that pregnant women, children, the elderly and persons with pre-existing health conditions may be more sensitive to chemical exposures. All the speakers mentioned the value of using the Internet to find current information about issues affecting the Fifth Ward.

City Council member Carol Mims Galloway also spoke at the workshop and presented ribbons to Arica Malveaux and Travis Closure, two of the fifth-graders who participated in the Mothers for Clean Air Children's Photography Workshop in May. Posters the students prepared with the photos they took of pollution sources in the Fifth Ward were on display.

Environmental Justice Grant Received

MfCA has received a one-year grant from the Environmental Protection Agency, Office of Environmental Justice to establish a chapter of Mothers for Clean Air in the Fifth Ward. This will be the third MfCA chapter in the Houston area. The two other chapter organizations are in Woodland Acres, an Hispanic community on the Houston Ship Channel and Barrett Station, an African-American community near Crosby. They were formed with EPA grants to the Galveston-Houston Association for Smog Prevention (GHASP). The grant for the Fifth Ward chapter is the first EPA Environmental Justice award MFCA has received.

The Fifth Ward was selected over other communities in the Houston area because of five federal and state Super Fund hazardous waste sites located there and its proximity to three heavily traveled freeways. It is located northeast of downtown Houston, east of U.S. 59, north of I-10 and south of I-610. less than 5 miles from the Houston Ship Channel. The Fifth Ward is an older community that is bearing an unfair burden of the negative environmental consequences of industrial and commercial operations.

The purpose of the grant is to train residents of the Fifth Ward to identify local environmental problems, gather information about pollution sources, and work to find solutions to those problems. The Chapter Planning Board of Fifth Ward residents and stakeholders has been meeting with the MfCA community organizer to arrange educational activities for the community. On April 15, residents took a bus tour of pollution sources affecting the Fifth Ward. On May 13, Fifth Ward students participating in an MfCA photography workshop photographed the sources. Future educational activities for the community include an environmental justice workshop on June 24, and training to access environmental data bases on the Internet at the end of June Fifth Ward schools and day care centers have also been included in MfCA's ozone education program. Colette Windom and Carrie Nicholson, residents of the Fifth Ward, were nominated president and vice-president of the chapter.

Organizations within the community have been very supportive of the objectives of the Fifth Ward Chapter. In addition to the Lyons Health Clinic which has provided space for meetings, The Fifth Ward Community Redevelopment Corporation, Partners/5 West, Pleasant Hill Community Development Corporation, and 5th Ward Enrichment Program have also contributed in some way.