WASHINGTON (AP) – People living in Houston-area neighborhoods that flooded during hurricane Harvey worry their homes might contain mud contaminated with a chemical linked to birth defects and cancer.
The Environmental Protection Agency says an unknown amount of dioxins may have washed downriver from a Superfund site, the San Jacinto River Waste Pits. The EPA says it’s ordered those responsible for the site to immediately address damage to a protective cap of fabric and rock intended to keep sediments highly contaminated with dioxins from spreading.
The EPA says a sample collected by an agency dive team from the exposed area shows dioxin levels more than 2,300 times the level set to trigger a cleanup.
A local environmental advocate, Jackie Young, says there’s no way of knowing where floodwaters carried the contaminated material.