Residents and mayor demand accountability for Kashmere Gardens ‘cancer cluster’

For more than a year, we’ve been following the plight of people in Houston’s Fifth Ward and Kashmere Gardens neighborhood. A 2019 state report showed the city’s first cancer cluster that many believe is the result of creosote contamination from a nearby railyard.

This week, the state came back with another report saying they found higher than normal leukemia rates in children.

The people out here are doing the best they can to survive on a day to day basis. A lot of the houses still haven’t been repaired from Hurricane Harvey. Now they’re facing actual proof that not only adults in this area are getting cancer, but kids are, too.

Kashmere Gardens resident Diane Cormier said, “Miss Rodriguez over here in the yellow house. Someone in their house died from cancer. Mr. and Mrs. Martinez died from cancer. My mom died from cancer. My mom and my two brothers.”

Cormier and dozens of her Kashmere Gardens neighbors have been saying for decades that creosote from a Union Pacific railyard is sickening them.

“Hear my plea,” said resident Sandra Edwards. “That’s all I’m asking. Hear our plea out here. We’re dying. They are dying. The kids are not even having a chance at life because of this and that’s not fair to us.”

Thirteen months ago, the state confirmed that this area had a higher than normal adult cancer rate. Now the same has been found to be true for childhood cancers. A new report from the Texas Department of State Health services took a look at 21 census tracts within a two mile radius of the railyard in Fifth Ward. In one tract, environmentalists found six observed acute lymphoblastic leukemia cases were significantly higher than expected. The standard incidence ratio is 4.74 – when only 1.3 cases were expected.

Dr. David Persse of the Houston Health Department said, “You can’t fix this problem overnight, so we need to think of alternatives. How to protect the people. They deserve a safe place to live.”

Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner agrees. In a statement, he wrote, in part:

“I am requesting that Union Pacific help to relocate affected residents and create a buffer between contaminated areas and homes in the neighborhood. The EPA and TCEQ must declare the area a Super Fund site.”

Union Pacific and they said: “We sympathize with families who have loved ones undergoing medical treatment. Union Pacific continues to follow the science as we evaluate the updated assessments. At this point, decades of testing show no exposure pathway from Union Pacific’s site to any resident. We’ve consistently met with many stakeholders and are planning meetings with more in the future.”