Clean-up efforts have been ongoing for over two decades at the shopping center at 11600 Jones Road, Houston, which was contaminated due to the operation of Bell Dry Cleaners from 1988 to 2002. The business was shut down after officials found the staff was illegally dumping contaminants into the storm drain behind the property.
The background
In 2003, the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality initiated remedial investigation of the contaminated area and provided filtration systems to property owners in the affected area. The site was then listed on the National Priority List, allowing the EPA to continue clean-up efforts.
In 2008, the first connections to the public water supply was made available for 144 homes and businesses, only covering half of the total affected area, as previously reported by Community Impact.
A five-year study released by the EPA in 2022 detailed the remedy chosen for the site as “not protective,” since the residents in Edgewood Estates and Evergreen Woods—neighborhoods located across the street from the site—could still be exposed to contaminants because they used private wells.
The site has been through regular testing of the groundwater, soil and air around the Superfund site. Furthermore, clean-up efforts have included a soil vapor extraction system that pulls vapors from the subsurface and in-situ bioremediation, which breaks down contaminants in the area by injecting a substance allowing them to naturally break down.
What's next
The EPA continues to connect residents in the contaminated area to the public water supply on a voluntary basis.
The agency will continue the semi-annual sampling event and will continue to operate and evaluate their soil vapor extraction systems, officials said.
Additionally, the EPA is finalizing the contractor for a remedial investigation and feasibility study in 2025 and will share the details when they are available, Community Impact reported in July.
This is a supplemental remedial investigation feasibility study that would be focused on the groundwater, said Lauren Guidry-Leach, the site's remedial project manager.
“There was [a remedial investigation and feasibility study] done in 2009 by the TCEQ and then another supplemental one done in 2017 that was really focused on the source area,” Guidry-Leach said. “So, this is really expanding out to the groundwater within the greater Jones Road Superfund site.”
While the timeline is always a moving target, the EPA plans to complete the new remedial investigation feasibility study by 2027 or 2028, Guidry-Leach said.
The study will cost over $2 million and will be awarded to a contractor soon, Guidry-Leach said. The study is meant to be robust and will include:
- Additional monitoring wells
- Additional sampling of groundwater and soil vapor analysis
- Robust data integration from previous data to new data that will be collected
- 3D visualization and analysis of the data collected to look at the subsurface collectively
- Re-evaluating the feasibility of the 2010 selected remedy, pump and treatment
Guidry-Leach said the soil vapor extraction system operating at the site will pause activity this winter due to the equipment not being weatherized.
The winter storm in 2021 caused damage to the SVE system, Guidry-Leach said. Due to the damage sustained then, the site will remain closed to minimize any damage to the equipment.
