Fifth Ward residents demand answers on Cancer cluster from EPA

All right, welcome back here to News at 5. So for a very long time, we've been covering this story extensively for years now, but folks living in Cashmere Gardens as well as Fifth Ward, they've been demanding answers for this cancer cluster and EPA research associated with it in their neighborhoods. Leslie Dullesport joining us now with more details on that. Leslie, they got you in the car, girl. You're heading back to the station. I'm not heading back to the station, I'm driving around the community where these people are concerned. Again, as you mentioned, Fifth Ward, Cashmere Gardens and the Denver Harbor area, okay? So here's the thing, we talked to people in this neighborhood today and people said that they have watched their family and their loved ones develop cancer for years and many of them have passed away from it. And they wanna know, what does this contamination mean for their health and what's being done about it? The first time that we've heard about this cancer cluster, so what they want to know is really what is new because they haven't heard anything else, right? So today, Congressman Christian Menefee, he joined residents, community leaders, demanding that the EPA release its draft health risk evaluation. Now, it concerns contamination at a former wood treatment facility now owned by Union Pacific. So Menefee says that a 2019 study found higher than expected rates of certain cancer. In this area, and he says that the EPA ordered Union Pacific to investigate the contamination all the way back in 2023. Now he does say that the agency had a draft health risk evaluation for nearly 400 days without releasing it to the community. And that's why this press conference was called earlier, because people want to know what was in that evaluation. And he says, here's the thing, families need more testing and numbers, they need to understand what those results mean. And honestly, truly, What is living and growing underneath their homes? We're here today because Trump's Environmental Protection Agency has set on a draft health risk assessment for 396 days. Neighbors tell me that they've spent their own money while they wait on medical tests, on soil tests, on repairs, on moving. No family should have to pay to guess at an answer that the administration has right now. The EPA has fault. And it doesn't make any sense. This is intentional, this slow walking. We meet with them once a month. They fly into Houston and they meet with members of Fifth Ward, Cashmere Gardens, and Denver Harbor. We have been diligent, we have been focused, we've been doing everything we can to make sure everything moves forward and they've been sitting on that information. We did our own private testing of fruit trees in the community, private testing, and we were told we should not eat that fruit. We need information to show if this cancer is related to the UP or not. We're not doctors. But we've got a whole new medical facility being built over here on Kelly Street. And with that facility, there can be some portion of that facility that's separated so that the residents here can go over there and have some type of testing free of charge. And so the other thing that the congressman and many folks who were at that press conference, he said that they want three things. And those three things are the draft to be released, a 60 day public comment period, and of course, a firm timeline for the final report. So to sum it all up, these people just want answers because they haven't heard anything in quite a long time, Anthony. You know, politics aside, you take the politics out of it no matter where you stand. These residents are simply asking for answers in regards to a disease that has impacted so many across the world when you talk about cancer. So them asking for a diligent response isn't too much to ask. I hope this is able to be resolved here because this is a story, Leslie, we've been following now for quite some time. All right. Thank you, Leslie, so much for that.