Hurricane Harvey Cleanup Progress

After Hurricane Harvey ravaged Texas in 2017, areas containing carcinogenic waste in the San Jacinto River required multi-million-dollar clean-ups. A few sites have reached significant milestones and have been removed from the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) priority cleanup list, including the San Jacinto River Waste Pits located in Houston, Texas.

The EPA also claims that they are committed to the remediation of the San Jacinto Waste Pits and will make sure that the remedial design will remove all the contamination safely and permanently while also taking into consideration the health and safety of all surrounding communities.

The Superfund cleanup process is a complex and multi-faceted process that requires community involvement. In the preliminary phase, the sites were assessed and investigated to evaluate the overall potential for the release of hazardous substances into the environment.

The sites were considered a high priority if the findings resulted in danger or a threat being posed to the people in the community and surrounding area.

The remedial stage involved an evaluation of the nature and extent of the contamination that occurred on site, and costs were discussed and determined for the cleanup process.

The overall goal is to return the site to order so that it can be reused and developed following the Hurricane Harvey cleanup progress. Now that the EPA feels that this site has reached this pivotal milestone, it can finally be removed from their lengthy list of priorities.

Submar has surveyed exposed pipelines left susceptible to damage during the Hurricane Harvey cleanup process.