Macie Kelly/Houston Public Media

On Tuesday, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) will discuss the next steps for a San Jacinto Superfund site a year after the agency determined that cleanup efforts by companies were “seriously deficient.”

In a letter last year, the agency threatened to take over the cleanup efforts of two waste pits in the San Jacinto River if the International Paper Company and McGinnes Industrial Maintenance Corporation did not submit remedial designs and ramp up cleaning efforts.

The pits, which contain cancer-causing chemicals called dioxins, were built in the 1960s to store hazardous waste from a nearby paper mill. These dioxins have repeatedly been released by flooding and erosion. In 2008, the pits were added to the EPA’s Superfund program targeting hazardous waste sites for cleanup.

The companies were first issued an order to begin the cleanup process in 2021, following years of delays in finalizing plans for the toxic site. The southern waste pit is more than 85% excavated. The Northern pit is still mostly untouched, and the EPA first started looking into plans for it last September.

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In November last year, the agency received the companies’ nearly 300-page revised remedial design detailing cleanup plans at the site.

Jackie Medcalf, CEO of Texas Health and Environment Alliance, said the EPA has been clear, direct and consistent in telling the companies to clean up the sites or risk the agency stepping in.

“However, the agency has yet to actually exercise their legal authority to do so,” Medcalf said. “We’ve reviewed International Paper and McGinnes’ plans. They were seriously deficient a year ago, and we believe they are still seriously deficient.

“Residents of Highlands, Channelview and the other nearby communities shouldn’t have to keep paying the price,” she said.

The public meeting will take place from 6 to 7:45 p.m. on Tuesday at the San Jacinto Community Center, 604 Highland Woods Dr. in Highland.