For Immediate Release

Corpus Christi, Texas. Several years after abandoning the Dona Park soil contamination crisis the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ) agreed to re-open the Dona Park case late last summer after meeting with members of Citizens for Environmental Justice (CFEJ).

The Citizens for Environmental Justice (CFEJ), have raised concerns repeatedly through the years about the botched remediation efforts from the 1990s; the methodology used by the state to conduct the soil sampling and the fact that both ASARCO and the state abandoned the issue before it was ever completed.

Now the results from Phase 1 are in and the preliminary data show that several properties are contaminated with heavy metals, including lead and cadmium above the clean up levels. “These results show what we already knew, that TCEQ abandoned the remediation efforts in the 1990s, leaving us on contaminated land,” said Tammy Foster, a long time Dona Park resident and Citizens for Environmental Justice Dona Park Chair.

“We’ll never know how many people have been adversely impacted through the decades from living on property highly contaminated by heavy metals,” said Suzie Canales, Executive Director of CFEJ. “It’s rewarding to see though that our activism resulted in the re-opening of this case and possibly helping numerous residents. So far, TCEQ has been working well with us and including us in every step. This is important in the success of this renewed effort.”

Background

February, 1994 – TCEQ (formerly Texas Natural Resource Conservation Commission, TNRCC) conducted soil sampling at Dona Park, Oak Park and Hillcrest. The highest levels of heavy metals (i.e. Lead, Cadmium and Zinc) were detected in the Dona Park Area. This was attributed to operations of the former zinc smelter owned by American Smelter and Refining Co. (ASARCO).

March 1, 1994 – TCEQ issues a Press Release announcing a meeting to be held at St. Theresa’s Church for March 7, 1994 to discuss additional soil sampling, this time focused on the Dona Park area. TCEQ went on to say that a clean-up of properties would be conducted that had lead levels above 500 parts per million (ppm); cadmium levels above 50 ppm.

April 1994 – soil sampling was conducted of the Dona Park area by combining soil from two residential lots.

May 1994 - TCEQ issues the results of the soil results and announces that they will conduct more testing for the “hot spots.”

June, 1994 – TCEQ conducts another round of soil sampling

February 6, 1995 – Eight (8) months after the June re-sampling event, the TCEQ issues a letter to residents containing the results

Subsequently, clean up was done of some of the residential properties then ASARCO filed for bankruptcy.

October and November 2003 -  ASARCO sends TCEQ letters regarding their “intentions” to clean up yards with elevated heavy metals. However, neither ASARCO nor TCEQ thoroughly followed through.

To see data from Phase 1: TCEQ

For more information, please contact:

Tammy Foster, CFEJ, Dona Park Chair: 361-688-3666

Suzie Canales, CFEJ, Executive Director: 361-334-6764