Representative Christian Menefee (D-TX) is demanding answers from the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) on its investigation of the Kashmere Gardens contamination in Houston, Texas.
In 2019, state health officials confirmed a cancer cluster in the area after identifying elevated rates of cancers associated with chemicals found in creosote, a toxic wood preservative, from the former Houston Wood Preserving Works site. After years of community advocacy and legal efforts, the EPA agreed in 2023 to investigate the contaminated rail facility, where creosote pollution spread into the soil and groundwater of surrounding historically Black neighborhoods.
But Rep. Menefee said the community is still awaiting answers, as the report promised by the EPA by the end of 2025 or early 2026 has yet to come.
“The community has been waiting for the report,” Rep. Menefee said. “And they have been raising concerns about this process for a long time, and they still don’t have confidence in how things have worked out so far. They deserve better than that.”
Residents and members of the EPA's Community Advisory Group have continued to raise concerns about the agency's 2023 investigation. These include how sampling locations and depths were selected, which contaminants were tested, whether the community had a meaningful role in key decisions and why additional residential sampling recently took place with little explanation.
Rep. Menefee said that the fact that the EPA is not clearly communicating answers to these questions to residents who are closest to this issue is a real concern.
“They have watched family members get sick,” Rep. Menefee said. “They have sat through meeting after meeting. And they still have serious questions about how this process has been run. That is not acceptable.”
In the wake of President Donald Trump's administration dismantling the EPA’s environmental justice offices and making staffing cuts, Rep. Menefee said he thinks it’s clear these communities are not a priority.
“And now a community that has already waited years for answers is left wondering whether anyone at EPA is still in their corner,” he said. “I am working to make sure the answer is yes.”
