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Malone Services Site in Texas City Added to Superfund Priorities List

Release Date: 6/14/2001
Contact Information: For more information contact the Office of External Affairs at (214) 665-2200.

     The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) added the Malone Services Company  site in Texas City, Texas, to the federal Superfund National Priorities List (NPL), EPA and the Texas Natural Resource Conservation Commission (TNRCC) announced today. Because of the listing, EPA can now begin to clean up the site.

     "Listing this site is an important first step in ensuring that public health and the  environment will be protected. The EPA and the TNRCC are committed to work together to clean up this site quickly and efficiently," EPA Regional Administrator Gregg Cooke said.

     TNRCC Chairman Robert J. Huston said, "The TNRCC stands ready to assist the EPA in  addressing problem sites such as this one. Continued cooperation between our agencies is  essential to clean up all contaminated properties, particularly those located in environmentally sensitive areas of our state."

     Malone was a hazardous waste storage, reclamation and disposal facility from 1964  through 1996. Acids, caustics, solvents and oily wastes from the site threaten the Galveston Bay estuary, a prime wildlife habitat that supports a wide range of commercial and recreational fishing.

     The facility received wastes from a variety of industries, and used a 5-acre impoundment for waste storage. The impoundment contains oily solids and contaminated water up to 40 feet deep. An onsite waste separator also contains residual waste.

     A shallow ground water aquifer beneath the site extends to Galveston Bay. Hazardous substances originally found in the impoundment and separator have been released to the underlying aquifer.  Chromium and lead have migrated to the Bay.

     Galveston Bay is the seventh largest estuary in the United States and is part of the  National Estuary Program, which promotes and protects the nation's most sensitive coastal ecosystems. More than 70 species of waterfowl and shorebirds and 90 species of amphibians and reptiles inhabit Galveston Bay's 600 square mile estuary.

     The EPA Superfund program works closely with state agencies to clean and restore uncontrolled contaminated properties. Superfund cleans sites when the work required is beyond the resources of state and local agencies.

     Additional information about this site is available on the EPA web site at
https://www.epa.gov/superfund/new/newnpl.htm.