'People are dropping dead for a reason': Residents of Texas town that has become cancer hotspot speaks out as EPA finds dangerous levels of toxic chemicals in soil and water

A town in Texas has been deemed a 'cancer cluster' after a government analysis found toxic chemicals in groundwater and soil.

For years, residents of Kashmere Gardens in Houston have raised concerns about a spike in cancer diagnosis. The town of around 10,000 people has seen 150 more cases that what is expected.

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) collected samples from 20 locations in the city, finding a majority were contaminated with high levels of toxic chemicals, including benzene and dioxin.

The investigation pinpointed the cause to a decommissioned railroad facility that burned a coal-like tar for nearly 100 years.

The hazardous pollutants seeped into the soil, creating a plume of contaminated groundwater below the site, where 110 houses were constructed.

While the EPA is not done testing all the samples from the area, 41 contained different tar, or creosote, chemicals.

So far, 51 of their soil and water samples have returned results, but there are still 66 samples left to analyze, - the EPA noted that it could take another four months to complete the research.

The agency has set the fall for its deadline to determine the risk of contamination and if cleanup will be required. 

Sandra Edwards, a Fifth Ward resident and founder of IMPACT Fifth Ward Justice, said: 'Something has been happening out here for decades, people are not just dropping dead for no reason.

'This just proves that we were right.' 

While the EPA analysis shows the community was correct, other studies have also shown a rise in cancer throughout the area.

In 2019, the Texas Department of State Health Services found that between 2000 and 2016 there were 15 more cases of esophagus cancer than would normally be expected, and 126 more cases of lung and bronchus cancer than expected. 

Then a 2021 study showed that children in the area were diagnosed with leukemia at five times the average rate.

One case was reported in 13-year-old Corinthian Giles, whose parents claim was diagnosed after coming in contact with a former creosote site five years ago.

The boy lost his battle with leukemia and his family sued Union Pacific, which owns the railway site, for wrongful death.

Union Pacific told local KHOU 11: 'Union Pacific sympathizes with the family and their loss. We will review the lawsuit and respond accordingly.'

The railroad has said in 2021 that in the past that there is no pathway for carcinogens to enter the human body - the the EPA analysis has found the chemicals in groundwater and soil.

Last September, Houston officials approved a $5 million voluntary relocation program in an effort to help Kashmere Gardens residents. 

The old railyard was used for preserving wood since the early 1990s for railroad ties until 1984.

This process involved burning creosote, wood treatment that helped prevent the ties from rotting.

Creosote can be produced by burning wood- or coal-tar, but the kind that comes from coal-tar is most often used for preserving wood.

The chemical is now known to contain many cancer-causing agents, and the coal-tar kind is especially loaded with them.

Despite the operation being dormant for 40 years, its effects persisted in the form of a so-called 'cancer cluster,' the term for an area where cancer is more common than it should be.

A cancer cluster can be easy to identify, but pinning down its exact cause can be hard to prove.

But outspoken local residents like two-time breast cancer survivor Joetta Stevenson would not let their plight go unanswered.

'We will not shut up. We will not be silenced,' Stevenson, president of the Greater Fifth Ward Super Neighborhood, told ABC13. 'I want people to know that this community is no longer the path of least resistance.'

She does not have a family history of breast cancer, yet she has had the disease twice. 

'It changed my entire life, my whole existence. It was so devastating to me as a person, physically, and emotionally, and financially,' she said.

Stevenson and her neighbors pushed the Houston Health Department to test their soil, and in 2022 they did.