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Houston Wood Preserving Works Operational Period (1899-1984)
The exact onset of chemical wood treatment at the Houston Wood Preserving Works is unclear. The Union Pacific Railroad company says that Southern Pacific Transportation Company began chemical wood treatment in 1899 at the Houston Wood Preserving Works site. However, according to the City of Houston 90-Day Notice of Intent to Sue, it was not until 1911 that Southern Pacific Railroad Company established the Houston Wood Preserving Works at 4910 Liberty Road to treat railroad ties with creosote. The facility also used creosote extenders––other preservatives now considered hazardous––which Southern Pacific purchased from up to three Houston area suppliers whose sites are now EPA Superfund sites: Brio Refining and Dixie Oil Processors, in the Friendswood area, and Motco, in La Marque.

From its inception until operations ended in 1984, the Wood Preserving Works used open, unlined pits for disposal of creosote by-products. The tar-like substance seeped down to form a “creosote plume” under the Wood Preserving Works site and neighboring areas. The surrounding area had several industrial facilities, many of which contributed to pollution in the area; today, it is considered a “brownfield” area. As a result, it is difficult to ascertain all possible sources of contamination of nearby soil and water.

According to the Notice of Intent to Sue, creosote contamination from the Wood Preserving Works reached the groundwater under the Kashmere Gardens neighborhood sometime in the 1970s. In 1974, an explosion on Southern Pacific’s site released vapors, damaged buildings, and injured many people. Similarly, in 1979, chemical-laden wastewater from the wood treatment caught fire in a ditch at the Wood Preserving Works. Much more recently, in 2014, Union Pacific paid residents in the area who agreed to use city water instead of groundwater on their properties, which may have been contaminated as far back as the 1970s.

In 1984, the EPA significantly restricted the use of creosote as a wood preservative and proposed to ban the use of creosote for any purpose other than wood preservation due to its status as a likely carcinogen. The same year, Southern Pacific ceased creosoting operations at the Wood Preserving Works. Shortly thereafter, Southern Pacific began cleanup operations of the site and dismantled all buildings. The area is still a rail yard, mostly paved over. Today, “tar-like sludge,” believed but not confirmed to be by-products from the creosote works, still seeps up between cracks in the pavement.