Lifshutz is one step closer to another new Blue Star-area project getting off the ground...
Feds target Big Tex dirt danger
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Federal crews will begin removing toxic soil Monday from the old Big Tex site, potentially clearing the way for the redevelopment of the rundown collection of industrial buildings on the banks of the San Antonio River.
The cleanup should eliminate the last vestiges of asbestos contamination that has lingered for decades and blocked plans to turn the dilapidated site into an artsy mixed-use development similar to the nearby Blue Star Arts Complex.
Area residents got their first look at the cleanup plan Wednesday night at a meeting with the Environmental Protection Agency, and were happy with what they saw.
Neighbors who live in nearby King William have been lobbying for better testing and cleanup at Big Tex since the San Antonio Express-News first reported in 2005 the link between the site and W.R. Grace & Co., which is known to have shipped millions of tons of asbestos-contaminated ore throughout the country.
“I think they should have done this a long time ago,” resident Ellen Garza said. “The sooner the better.”
EPA crews in full protective gear will begin removing at least 1,100 cubic yards of contaminated soil Monday, scraping off at least 6 inches of ground in multiple areas of the 7.5-acre site. The hazardous soil will be buried at a landfill.
EPA Site Coordinator Eric Delgado said workers will constantly spray the area with water to keep down dust and set up a system of air quality monitors to ensure no airborne asbestos fibers escape the site.
“The minute anyone sees dust, we will stop work. Even if it is just a poof,” he said. “That's just what we have to do. We realize we're not in the middle of nowhere. We're in people's backyards.”
Crews also will decontaminate two buildings on the site that tested positive for asbestos.
Sitting adjacent to the Blue Star Arts Complex and across the river from King William, the Big Tex site is named after the grain company whose logo still can be seen on one of the buildings. But it's the area's link with W.R. Grace that has caused trouble.
The company is known to have sent millions of tons of vermiculite ore from its mine in Libby, Mont., to 200 locations throughout the country despite, according to federal court documents, company officials' knowledge that the ore was tainted with tremolite, or amphibole asbestos.
The San Antonio site was one of the company's largest plants, processing more than 100,000 tons of the tainted ore from 1961 to 1989.Asbestos can cause lung cancer and other deadly illnesses, and the W.R. Grace asbestos is a particularly hazardous form. In Libby, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention found the rate of deaths from asbestosis, a lung disease caused by exposure to asbestos, was about 60 times higher than the national average.
Delgado said there are no known health problems linked to the San Antonio site, but he said state health officials are attempting to find people who worked at the site. Health officials have said anyone who worked or played near the site when W.R. Grace operated in the area should notify their family physician.
Soil and air testing conducted at Big Tex earlier this year showed asbestos contamination in 26 50-by-50 foot grids, as well as two buildings.
“No asbestos risk was detected offsite,” Delgado said. “That's a good thing.”
The cleanup will cost about $500,000. The EPA initially will pay the costs and then try to collect from any of the site's former or current owners judged responsible.
Owner James Lifshutz, who bought the site long after the asbestos operation shut down, didn't know whether the federal government would judge him responsible for the cleanup.
“That's yet to be worked out,” he said.
Lifshutz still wants to tear down the old facilities and replace them with his planned mixed-use development, but wouldn't hazard a timeline for the project. He was happy with the EPA's cleanup plans.
“I'm pleased that it appears this is finally going to happen, and that when it does happen there will be no questions left about he safety of the site,” Lifshutz said. “That's what I've been asking for all along.”