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The San Jacinto River Waste Pits Site (Site) is on the western bank of the San Jacinto River, in Harris County, Texas, located near the Interstate Highway 10 (I-10) bridge over the San Jacinto River. The waste pits were constructed in the 1960s for disposal and paper mill waste. The Site was placed on the National Priorities List (Superfund) in March of 2008. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is currently evaluating remedial alternatives to address contamination at the Site.
This website contains publicly available information about the San Jacinto Waste Pits project. It is provided for community information purposes by the companies involved in the Site's remediation: International Paper and MIMC.
11/25/24
The Revised Final (Revised 100%) Remedial Design for the Northern Impoundment of the San Jacinto River Waste Pits was submitted to EPA Region 6 on November 25, 2024. Following is that submittal.
Revised Final (100%) Remedial Design - Northern Impoundment Deliverables Submittal
The complete submittal is also available to view at https://www.epa.gov/tx/sjrwp.
7/25/24
The 100% Remedial Design (RD) document for the Northern Impoundment for the San Jacinto River Waste Pits was submitted as required to EPA Region 6 on July 17, 2024.
The Responsible Parties (RPs) are committed to protecting public health and the environment and they believe that remediation planning for the San Jacinto site must be rigorous, transparent, and science-based and lead to engineering standards that will protect the river and the community. The RPs look forward to receiving and responding to EPA and stakeholder comments on the 100% RD.
Links to the RD submittal are available as listed below: 100% Remedial Design - Northern Impoundment – Cover Letter
100% Remedial Design - Northern Impoundment
Appendix A - Pre-Design and Supplemental Design Investigation Supporting Documents
Appendix B - Geotechnical Engineering Report
Appendix C - Treatability Testing Supporting Documents
Appendix D - ARAR Supporting Documents
Appendix E - Sand Separation Area Supporting Documents
Appendix F - Hydrodynamic Modelling Report
Appendix G - Design Drawing Package
Appendix H - Design Specifications
Appendix I - BMP Structural Design Report
Appendix J - Supporting Deliverables
3/20/2024
Q: It has been said by some that little progress has been made on the overall effort to remediate the San Jacinto River Waste Pits Superfund site. What are the facts about progress made to date?
A: The Responsible Parties are committed to protecting public health and the environment, and we believe that remediation for the San Jacinto site must be rigorous, transparent and science-based. This will lead to engineering and design that will protect the river and the community. In that context, significant progress is being made.
In particular:
– Remedial action for the Southern Impoundment within the site has been completed over the past 15 months (Nov. 2022-Jan. 2024). This includes construction of a large wastewater treatment plant for the treatment of collected water, the excavation and offsite disposal of approximately 100,000 cubic yards of impacted material, and the import of clean material to backfill and restore the excavated areas.
– For the Northern Impoundment, which is a larger portion of the site that involves different adjacency to the river, various remedial design components have been submitted according to EPA requirements.
You can read the 90% Remedial Design here. This outlines and details the wide range of investigation, engineering studies, analyses and underlying design approaches rigorously reviewed for remediation of the waste pits within the Northern Impoundment. Other relevant documents to read can be found here and here.
– More recently, the Responsible Parties supplied, on Jan. 25, 2024, a supplementary plan in response to EPA comments received earlier in January. This 327-page document includes a proposed schedule for the submission of a Revised 90% Remedial Design within 130 days from EPA approval of the plan.
The Responsible Parties have worked tirelessly to make progress since submission of the 90% Remedial Design and intend to work cooperatively with EPA and relevant stakeholders to address elements of the plan that, in EPA’s view, may require further refinement.
Q: Some say the cleanup of the Northern site is simple to conduct and that it should have occurred already. Is that the case?
A: The Remedial Action Objectives that were contained in the EPA’s 2017 Record of Decision for the San Jacinto River Waste Pits coupled with unique site features make this project more difficult to design and implement than other Superfund cleanup projects in the U.S. Therefore, the engineering, planning and design involved for a safe remedial action that ensures no releases from the site occur in this complex riverine setting requires the utmost diligence and engineering evaluation that takes into account a multitude of considerations, such as flooding from weather-related events, coordination of construction with the Interstate 10 bridge replacement project, treatment of large volumes of water; material at certain depths, all the while ensuring worker and community safety. None of this is simple or without complication as a wide range of studies conducted demonstrate.
Q: What remedial design submissions have the Responsible Parties provided since the 90% RD?
A: The Responsible Parties have worked expeditiously to prepare their most recently submitted updated plan. This submission addresses various issues identified by the EPA in January 2024. In preparing this supplemental plan, the Responsible Parties provided drafts of several documents, including:
With this submission completed, the EPA will determine the approach and timetable to move the revised 90% Remedial Design forward. The Responsible Parties intend to continue to work cooperatively with EPA in a timely manner.
Q: Will trucks be involved in the removal of the materials from the site or are other transport options being considered?
A: The 90% Remedial Design plan identified trucking as the optimal means to transport the material to be removed from the site. Within the Southern Impoundment, this method was proven effective and safe in 2023, as approximately 100,000 cubic yards of material was transported off-site via trucks. This activity validated the use of trucks for transporting of material from the site over other options.
Q: How can community members find reliable sources of information about the site’s status and next steps in the remediation process?
A: A source for accurate information about the site’s history, status and engineering studies and planning involved can be found at the EPA’s website here. In addition, this website strives to illuminate and refer to timely publicly available information about the project.
7/14/22
The 90% Remedial Design (RD) document for the Northern Impoundment for the San Jacinto River Waste Pits was submitted as required to EPA Region 6 on June 27.
The complete document can be found at: https://semspub.epa.gov/work/06/100027142.pdf
An array of associated geotechnical information, testing results, modeling, design drawings, specifications and supplemental plans are included with the report.
3/14/22
In a letter to the U.S. EPA dated 3/24/2022, the Agency was asked to reconsider and alter the response action for the Northern Impoundment of the San Jacinto Waste Pits.
A copy of the complete letter can be found here
A copy of the EPA’s response letter can be found here
7/14/20
The Preliminary 30% Remedial Design (RD) document for the Northern Impoundment for the San Jacinto River Waste Pits was submitted to EPA Region 6 on May 28.
Associated design drawings, specifications and supplemental plans are also included in the report.
The complete document can be found at: https://semspub.epa.gov/src/collection/06/SC32193
Excerpt: "This letter and the enclosed reports and memoranda are based upon either an event (Hurricane Harvey) that occurred after the close of the public comment period on the PRAP or on a document, the October 2, 2017 USEPA Region 6 Memorandum, that was submitted to the Remedy Review Board following the close of the common period."
Excerpt: "Hurricane Harvey was certainly an “ultra-extreme” event, and should be considered a defining ultra-extreme event…The Time Critical Removal Action (TCRA) cap withstood the forces of Harvey, with only small areas of the TCRA armor being affected. "
Excerpt: "Hurricane Harvey was an extreme event and its occurrence creates an unusual opportunity to test assertions regarding long-term stability of the TCRA Armored Cap in the face of extreme hydrologic events and stresses. "
Excerpt: "Results of the evaluation confirm that Harvey was an extreme flood event with high velocities acting over the Armored Cap. Based on the modeling performed, it does not appear that Harvey produced higher forces on the Armored Cap than the large range of storm conditions simulated as part of both the TCRA (Anchor QEA 2010) and Draft Feasibility Study (Anchor QEA 2014). "
Excerpt: "Because it does not mention the TCRA armored cap, Region 6 also does not acknowledge that its preferred remedy for removal necessarily involves removal of that functioning cap – something that has never been done before and involves technical challenges and risks that were detailed in Respondents’ comments on Region 6’s Proposed Remedial Action Plan (Proposed Plan). "
Watch an animation about the recently completed repair work at the site. Click here to view/download the video.
Read more about sites throughout the country that have implemented successful, functioning caps
Watch a short video illustrating the armored cap at the San Jacinto Site.