Brownsville Railroad Yard

SKA Consulting was retained by the City of Brownsville to conduct environmental investigation and remediation activities on the former Southern Pacific railroad yard in preparation for redevelopment as a City Park. The railroad yard was active from the late 1800s through the late 1990s. Typical environmental impacts encountered include petroleum hydrocarbon impacts in soil from lubricating oils and fuels, and spills of pesticides. Groundwater impacts include dissolved-phase and phase-separated hydrocarbons from a suspected former on-site underground storage tank (UST) system and lead impact from an adjacent former portion of the rail yard where a buried vault containing lead-acid batteries was previously discovered by others. For the purposes of site acquisition and planning, three separate Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ) Voluntary Cleanup Program (VCP) identification numbers were requested from the TCEQ, one for each Area of Concern.

From June 1999 to October 1999, a total of 9 soil borings and/or monitoring wells were installed in Area of Concern 1 (suspected former UST area) on the subject property. From September 1999 to November 2003, six groundwater sampling events were conducted at the subject property. From May 2003 to February 2004, seven phase-separated hydrocarbon (PSH) removal events were conducted at the subject property utilizing a vacuum truck and a well seal to recover PSH and hydrocarbon vapors present within the soil.

The lead impact in groundwater originating from an adjacent property (Area of Concern 2) was addressed via natural attenuation monitoring. Once plume stability was confirmed and the groundwater lead concentrations consistently met residential cleanup standards, site closure was granted by the TCEQ.

Additional soil sampling and testing was also performed an area of limited pesticide impact in soil (Area of Concern 3). The results of this testing, combined with derived site-specific residential target concentrations, revealed no organochlorine or organophosphate pesticide concentrations above TCEQ residential cleanup goals.

A final residential Certificate of Completion (COC) was issued by the TCEQ VCP for Areas of Concern 2 and 3 in July 2003. A final residential COC was issued by the TCEQ VCP for Area of Concern 1 in October 2004.

Related Services
- Property Assessments
- Voluntary Cleanup Program/Risk-Based Corrective Action Program
- Leaking Underground Storage Tank Evaluations and Regulatory Closures

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