HOUSTON — People living near a former Fifth Ward creosote plant linked to nearby cancer clusters will have to wait a little longer for money to move.
On Wednesday, Houston City Council delayed a vote on a $2 million contract to start running a voluntary relocation program.
The prior council already set aside $5 million for the program. However, both the new mayor and longtime residents say they still have questions on how it will be run.
“There’s no plan in effect,” said Mayor John Whitmire, during Wednesday’s meeting. “Who are you gonna get to manage it?”
It led to nearly an hour of discussion and debate between the mayor and council members.
“Although it may not be the best plan, it is a start,” said Council Member Edward Pollard of District J.
Ultimately, city council members granted Mayor John Whitmire’s request for a 30-day delay in voting for a contract with Houston Land Bank to administer the program. Council members plan to vote on the contract at their February 7 meeting.
“We need city officials to go out there and sit down and give them the best information we can,” said Mayor Whitmire, speaking to reporters after the meeting.
In Fifth Ward, at the corner of Lavender and Liberty, lies Camryn Easley’s lifelong home and the house her grandmother wanted to leave before dying from cancer.
“What she was hoping for was for the relocation,” said Easley. “She had gotten lung cancer, and then she’d gotten it removed, and then it came back, came back with a vengeance.”
Neighbor Sandra Edwards lost her father to cancer.
“We need justice out here,” said Edwards.
Both blame contamination from creosote, a toxic wood preservative used to treat railroad ties and telephone poles at the railyard across the street up until the 1980s.
In 2019, the Texas Department of State Health Services found cancer clusters in certain areas around the railyard.
“It took a while before they did anything, but it’s happening,” said Edwards.
In September 2023, the city announced that 41 residential lots nearby, including Easley and Edwards’ homes, would be eligible for the Fifth Ward Voluntary Relocation Program.
After Wednesday's council meeting, both Easley and Edwards welcomed the pause and the mayor's statement that he wanted to talk with community members,
“They haven’t come and talked to any of the residents here,” said Easley.
“We have things we need to discuss before we just jump into something,” said Edwards.
Mayor Whitmire says nine of the 42 eligible households have expressed interest in relocating. That includes renters, who would get $10,000 each.
The mayor told KHOU he plans to reach out to officials at the Environmental Protection Agency within 30 days to try to secure more funding for relocation.
Officials with Union Pacific, which took over the railyard after creosote usage ended, have told KHOU they've "completed extensive remediation work" at the railyard and are continuing soil testing in collaboration with the EPA.