Project Summary (2025-2030)

Since the late 1800s, Texas has produced more oil and gas than any other state and remains the largest national daily producer, boasting a massive port, transportation network, and central location along the Texas coast. However, due primarily to legacy pollution, >400 Superfund Sites are located within Harris County, including 11 active National Priority List (NPL) sites and 31 active non-NPL sites. The Houston Ship Channel, containing two NPL sites, is lined by Port Authority facilities, industry, petroleum refineries, and processing facilities. It is also surrounded by some of the City’s oldest, densest, and poorest neighborhoods. The Ship Channel Superfund sites are adjoined by many more sites managed by the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality. Collectively they contain significant levels of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), mercury, dioxins, furans, polychlorinated biphenyls, etc. PAHs are particularly problematic since they are continuously generated and constitute a persistent human health concern.

The focus of the BCM-Rice SRP on the impact of PAHs and other contaminants on preterm birth and susceptibility to chronic respiratory and neuro- degenerative diseases addresses a largely unmet need for identifying at-risk populations and developing new and novel technologies for identifying and ameliorating risk. The Overall Goal of the Community Engagement Core (CEC) is to facilitate meaningful bidirectional communications among the B-R SRP’s internal and external stakeholders. In addressing the SRP’s fourth mandate, their Mission is to develop and adapt best practices to work with residents and local leaders of affected communities to facilitate prevention and intervention strategies that will result in community-level reductions in exposure to PAHs and other Superfund site pollutants. The CEC’s primary communities of interest include those adjacent to the San Jacinto Waste Pits, Jones Rd. groundwater contamination site, Harrisburg/Manchester, Pasadena, and Patrick Bayou. Their partners include community groups and members, BR-SRP academic investigators, environmental and public health practitioners, and local policymakers. CEC investigators will support this work by providing expertise in health and social sciences, engineering, and medicine. They will work with community experts to develop new knowledge about factors influencing exposure, which will in turn foster interventions to reduce exposures.

The CEC’s Specific Aims include:

1. Engage community partners and Center projects and cores through communication strategies that increase investigator and community capacity for reducing exposures to PAHs and other Superfund contaminants.

2. Advance the field of community engagement, rigorously evaluate CEC activities to assess the impact of the CEC’s work, and share successful approaches with SRP colleagues.