Fort Worth Is Almost Done Cleaning Its Imaginary Island

Yesterday the DFW entity known by some as Elsie Hotpepper sent me a link via a Facebook message.

The link was to an article in the Fort Worth Star-Telegram titled Millions have been spent to clean up chemicals in Fort Worth. The work is nearly done.

The Hotpepper message accompanying the link simply said "You will have a field day with this one..."

That image you see above is a screen cap from the aforementioned article. That is one of Fort Worth's new amazing iconic signature bridges you see in the foreground. There are three of these amazing bridges, which have been such complex feats of engineering that construction on them is still not complete seven years after building began with a celebratory TNT explosion way back in 2014.

You may not be able to click the link and get past the Star-Telegram paywall. For some reason I am able to do so. So, let's take a look at this article.

We start with the first paragraph perplexing me...

For more than a decade, the Tarrant Regional Water District has spent upwards of $43 million to remove toxic chemicals from two dozen properties in Fort Worth’s industrial north side.

I have long opined that America's Biggest Boondoggle would one day get much bigger when toxic chemicals get discovered requiring an EPA Superfund type cleanup.

But, I guess I was wrong about that and the toxic cleanup has been going on for more than a decade.

The TRWD has spent upwards of $43 million of TRWD funds to do this cleanup? Why wasn't the EPA involved, with the Superfund paying for the cleanup? At one point in time, this century, Tacoma had the biggest EPA Superfund cleanup in Superfund history, when the Asarco smelting plant property was cleaned up to prepare for the massive Point Ruston development.

Moving on to the second paragraph...

Now, only two sites remain between the district and its goal to complete the “largest single voluntary cleanup program in the state of Texas,” according to Woody Frossard, the water district’s environmental director.

Are we actually bragging that this is the largest voluntary cleanup in the state of Texas? And this has been a goal? To have the largest voluntary cleanup? Seems like there are plenty of other things the TRWD might focus on as a worthwhile goal.

Continuing on...

The effort to remove more than 300,000 cubic yards of contaminated soil and treat more than 44 million gallons of water was spurred by the Panther Island/Central City flood control project.

I think I remember reading J.D. Granger bragging about all the contaminated dirt that had been removed. Where did this contaminated soil get moved to? Did anyone get photo documentation of the dirty dirt being moved? 44 million gallons of water was treated? How? Was the water transported to a water treatment plant where it was circulated back into the water supply? 

And then we have this...

Congress authorized federal funding for digging the channel in 2016, but has not sent the money to Fort Worth in the years since. The project would return flood protection to more than 2,400 acres inhabited by Fort Worth residents, according to a city press release.

Why hasn't the federal funding been sent to Fort Worth you are likely wondering? Didn't we read somewhere that the fact that there has been no required Feasibility Study completed, or some such thing, needed before the Army Corps of Engineers can give the go ahead? The project would return flood protection? As if the area is not already protected by levees built well over a half century ago, with no flooding in the protected area since the levees were built.

Continuing on we read that the water district's environmental director, Woody Frossard would not name the two remaining properties in need of cleanup, but he is optimistic those two properties will be cleaned up in the next fiscal year, which starts in October, and then in the next paragraph...

“Once I get these two properties remediated, I am completely through with environmental remediation for the bypass channel,” Frossard said. “There will be no additional environmental restrictions to keep the Corps from starting construction as soon as they get funding.”

Once those two properties get cleaned up there is nothing but lack of funding to stop the Army Corps of Engineers from starting to dig the ditch? What about that required Feasibility Study? And also, from what this Frossard guy is saying, there will be no ditch digging for yet one more year, with the Corps unable to dig the ditch until those two properties are cleaned up. 

I'm done with the commenting. I'll just copy the rest of the article for your reading enlightenment...

Due to its history of housing a petroleum refinery, two metal refineries and a metal reclamation facility, Fort Worth’s northern section required significant cleanups to address decades of contamination. Water district officials began identifying those sites in 2004, with remediation work starting in the mid-2000s, Frossard said.

Earlier this month, the water district announced the completion of its cleanup at Fort Worth’s former police and fire training center and an adjacent property on Calvert Street. For decades, trainees shot lead bullets at the firing range and practiced putting out fires using aqueous film forming foam, a popular fire suppressant containing perfluoroalkyl and polyfluoroalkyl substances, commonly known as PFAS.

PFAS chemicals, which are found in many consumer products, are known as “forever chemicals” because they are highly persistent and accumulate in people’s bodies rather than breaking down, said Dr. Katherine Pelch, a professor at the University of North Texas Health Science Center at Fort Worth who studies PFAS and public health.

Frossard said the most difficult chemicals to remove are those toxic to humans, especially with the amount of lead found at the former training center, which sits near the Charles. H. Haws Athletic Center.

“For all the years of shooting, they’ve shot shotguns, rifles and pistols so there was obviously a lot of spent lead there,” he said. “We had to have a special crew come in that had to be suited up so that they could actually get in there and collect all of the lead material … That was the very first thing that had to be done: the lead contamination had to be removed and contained.”

Two concrete towers at the center are still awaiting demolition, and Frossard plans to request funding for that project at the water district’s next board meeting.

Although cleanups have officially been completed at 26 of 28 properties identified by the water district, the process of earning certificates of completion from the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality could take several extra months. The water district has received 21 certificates so far, Frossard said.

Frossard has been with the water district for the entirety of the cleanup process, and is proud to have seen the district clean north Fort Worth so that it’s safe for residential development.

“We cleaned up everything to residential standards, which means you can build houses on it, kids can play in the dirt,” he said. “There’s less restrictive state standards out there, like commercial or industrial, that would limit our ability to use the property for any other purpose. The highest standard is residential, and we have cleaned it up to the highest standard.”