French, Ltd.

Overview

The French, Ltd. site covers 55 acres in Crosby, Texas. It operated as a sand mining and industrial waste disposal facility from 1950 to 1973. Between 1966 and 1971, roughly 90 million gallons of petrochemical waste were dumped there, fouling groundwater, surface water, soil, and sludge with hazardous chemicals and heavy metals. EPA placed the site on the National Priorities List (NPL) in September 1983. The NPL is the federal list of the most serious uncontrolled hazardous waste sites in the country.

Contaminants found in groundwater include benzene, arsenic, chloroform, pentachlorophenol, polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), volatile organic compounds (VOCs), and several other chemicals. Soil and sludge contain similar contaminants, plus pesticides, metals, and base neutral acids. All contamination is concentrated in one operable unit (OU-1), which focuses on lagoon bioremediation. An operable unit is a defined area or environmental medium targeted for specific cleanup work.

Cleanup began in the late 1980s. Workers extracted and treated groundwater, excavated contaminated soil and sludge, and stabilized treatment residues. Physical construction wrapped up in September 1994. A groundwater treatment system ran from 1992 to 1995, after which the approach shifted to monitored natural attenuation, meaning the site relies on natural processes to reduce contamination while ongoing monitoring tracks progress. A 2014 amendment to the cleanup plan shifted the groundwater strategy further, focusing on containing contamination within defined boundaries and using institutional controls to prevent human exposure rather than achieving cleanup levels for every chemical. Annual groundwater monitoring by the French Limited Task Group shows contamination is shrinking in some areas, with no migration detected outside the monitoring network since 2014. New remedial design work began in August 2024 and is expected to finish by July 2025, followed by a final remedial action estimated to conclude between September and November 2026.

EPA has determined that human exposure is currently under control across the entire site, with no unacceptable exposure pathways active. Contaminated groundwater movement has stabilized, and no unacceptable discharge to surface water has been detected. The site is not yet deleted from the NPL, and not all cleanup goals for anticipated future land uses have been fully achieved. The most recent five-year review was completed in August 2022, with the next one estimated for 2027. The site is estimated to be ready for anticipated reuse between September and November 2028. A 55-acre tidal marsh was created in the San Jacinto floodplain to compensate for natural resource injuries, providing public recreational access and wildlife habitat.

Community members can contact the EPA Community Involvement Coordinator. Site documents are available at the Crosby Branch Library at 135 Hare Road in Crosby, Texas, and through EPA's online database.