After cancer-causing chemicals were found in Fifth Ward soil, Houston mayor says cleanup plans are inadequate

Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner speaks at a panel at The Texas Tribune Festival in Austin on Sept. 24, 2022. (Credit: Azul Sordo/The Texas Tribune)

Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner said a plan submitted to Texas environmental regulators to remediate legacy rail yard contamination in a north Houston neighborhood won’t be sufficient after the city’s health department found toxic chemicals in soil samples near the yard.

“The remediation measures that the [Texas Commission on Environmental Quality] and [Union Pacific] have talked about in the past are not nearly adequate now,” Turner said in an interview during The Texas Tribune Festival on Saturday. “You have to include relocation [of residents] as one of those steps in order to address the situation.”