Testing is ongoing in Houston's Fifth Wards to link toxins to cancer, but that's not stopping the city from approving permits for developers. In September, Houston's City Council approved $5 million of taxpayers' money to move people out of, identified by the Texas Department of Health and Human Services, in the Greater Fifth Ward.
The Houston Health Department states that the cancers are "known to be associated" with the types of chemicals found at a nearby shuttered Southern Pacific, now Union Pacific Railroad, wood treatment facility. The strength of that link is at the center of an Environmental Protection Agency-Union Pacific Railroadwhich kicked off last week. Yet, the city is still granting developers, including a city employee, permits to build new rental units in the area. ABC13 spoke with renters who said they were not made aware of the deadly conditions. Camryn Easley lives across the street from the facility - once used to treat rail ties with creosote, a cancer-causing compound, with her husband, a snake, a cat, two turtles, a flying squirrel, and five dog