Union Pacific Lawsuit Portal

Union Pacific Railroad Sued Over Alleged Contamination of Houston Neighborhood, Resulting in Cancer Cluster and Toxic Groundwater Plume

February 3, 2020

HOUSTON, Feb. 3, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Over 80 residents in the Houston neighborhoods of the Fifth Ward and Kashmere Gardens in Houston have sued Union Pacific Railroad Company alleging more than $100,000,000.00 in damages for contaminating their properties and groundwater with known probable human carcinogen, creosote, and other toxic chemicals.

Union Pacific Sued Over Alleged Contamination

February 3, 2020

The case is "Anna Dorsey, et al. v. Union Pacific Railroad Company, et al.," Cause No. 2020-07396, in the 281st District Court of Harris County, Texas.

For decades, creosote waste remained unconstrained on the site, contaminating the air, soil and water. Today creosote levels continue to test above safe concentrations and a plume of creosote waste has formed beneath the homes of hundreds of area residents.

Union Pacific addresses “cancer cluster” in Houston’s Fifth Ward

January 22, 2020

Houston’s KHOU11 CBS News reports many residents in the area suspect that this facility was, at some point, hazardous to human health. Grace Myrick, who lives close to the old facility, said “My sister died of myeloma.” And, KHOU 11 News reports that other residents have reported cancer issues to the news organization. Myrick added that when the facility was open years ago, “They would sound an alarm for you to get out of here because you could not breath when they were burning the creosote.”