Brio Superfund site

The Brio Superfund site is a former industrial location in Harris County, Texas that also includes the Dixie Oil Processors site. It is a federal Superfund site that required the obliteration of an adjacent neighborhood called South Bend that was partly built on the site.

In 1992, the Brio Superfund site was the subject of a US$207 million dollar court settlement, at the time the largest out of court settlement for a toxic waste case.

Site remediation was originally to be done through an on-site incinerator, but after a significant portion of the incinerator apparatus was built, the plan was scrapped in part due to community opposition, the fact that many of the pollutants are unburnable minerals, and other reasons.

The "South Belt-Ellington Leader", [ [http://www.southbeltleader.com/ South Belt-Ellington Leader] ] a community newspaper still in publication as of May 2008, was known for publishing details of the Brio Superfund site and being a key opponent to onsite incineration.

The later consensus was that full remediation was infeasible given technological and financial constraints, so the in-place plan is containment with clay slurries and various forms of site monitoring.

References

*Bruce van Voorst. " [http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,979215,00.html Toxic Dumps:] ", "Time magazine", September 13 1993.
* [http://www.epa.gov/superfund/sites/npl/nar792.htm EPA's National Priorities List narrative]
* [http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&hl=en&geocode=&q=dixie+farm+road+and+beamer+road,+harris+county,+tx&sll=37.0625,-95.677068&sspn=46.409192,67.763672&ie=UTF8&ll=29.574316,-95.209258&spn=0.014053,0.018582&t=h&z=16&iwloc=addr Map of location] with old streets still visible in map view