HOUSTON — Hundreds of community members gathered Tuesday night at a meeting over how to deal with a toxic site owned by Union Pacific that's being blamed for "cancer clusters" in nearby neighborhoods.
The toxic railyard is located near Kashmere Gardens and the Greater Fifth Ward.
The community has been desperately searching for a solution for decades now.
"It's kind of scary because we don't know. We want to know," said Kashmere Gardens resident Janet Massey.
Massey made sure she was part of the passionate crowd.
"Mine as well dropped a nuclear bomb in this neighborhood," she said.
At the meeting, representatives from Union Pacific presented their Hazardous Waste Removal Permit renewal proposal.
Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner was also in attendance at the meeting.
"I'm here today speaking on the behalf of the city of Houston," Turner said. "We stand in opposition to the hazardous waste permit."
"This proposed permit does not go far enough and does not do enough to solve the problem."
The problem Turner was referring to is decades of creosote contamination these community members have dealt with. One by one, community members shared their stories.
"When a family goes through this. All your life relatives dying, people dying and nobody is being compensated," said one attendee.
"I have buried three of my children since 2012 and two of them had cancer," said Doris Clay, another attendee.