Houston Public Works recommends municipal setting designation for 1733 Wirt Road after tests show plume declining

Cassandra Walker, an administration manager with Houston Public Works, told the Quality of Life Committee on Aug. 5 that staff have recommended local support for a municipal setting designation (MSD) for 1733 Wirt Road, the former Cobb's Specialty Cleaners, after monitoring showed contaminant concentrations in a shallow groundwater plume are stable or decreasing.

"A municipal setting designation is an official designation that certifies that a property's ground water is contaminated and will not be used as potable water now or in the future," Walker said, explaining that the designation is administered by the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality and requires local support under Article 13 of chapter 47 of the city code.

Walker and remediation consultant Carly Cherry described the site investigation and monitoring: the MSD program targets shallow groundwater roughly 20–60 feet below the surface; contaminated wells at the property are about 30 feet deep, investigators sampled down to about 70 feet and found the deeper aquifer unimpacted, and the application file includes on‑site monitoring wells (five) and off‑site wells (two). Cherry said comparisons of plume maps from 2019 to 2023 show a declining or retracting plume.

Michael Connelly, legal counsel for the property owner, urged approval and described the property's remediation history: he said the owners enrolled the site in a voluntary cleanup program with the TCEQ in 2019, removed the contamination source, and have borne remediation and litigation costs to get the site to this point. "There are three compelling reasons for the MSD to be approved in this instance," Connelly said, citing containment and attenuation of contamination, TCEQ's willingness to issue a certificate of completion if the MSD is approved, and the owners' remediation efforts and expense.

Transcript statements and materials presented at the hearing list the site contaminants as chlorinated solvents (including trichloroethylene and daughter products such as cis‑1,2‑dichloroethylene and vinyl chloride) and petroleum compounds from a nearby gas station. Walker said applicants must demonstrate consistent attenuation (decreasing concentrations across repeated samples) before the city will present an application; staff generally require at least two sampling events per year and prefer quarterly sampling during the application period.

Walker told the committee that written notices for the MSD process were issued on 07/01/2024 and that a public meeting was held on 08/05/2024. She said the Houston Public Works director has requested this public hearing and, depending on the hearing outcome, will ask the full city council to adopt ordinances containing the elements required by state law and Article 13 of chapter 47 to support the MSD application.

At the Oct. 5 informational hearing there was no committee vote. Committee members questioned details such as well radii and adjacent drinking‑water wells; Walker and Cherry said the closest deeper drinking wells were not near the site, that deeper aquifers tested were not impacted, and that sampling and monitoring are ongoing.

Connelly and the owner's materials provided cost figures the committee heard in the meeting: litigation costs described as about $250,000, lost rent cited at about $60,000, and remediation expenditures described by counsel as roughly $300,000. Counsel said those expenses reflect the owner's efforts to remediate and that a TCEQ certificate of completion tied to an MSD would allow the property to be sold with a closure letter in place.

The committee did not take a formal vote on the MSD. Walker said the next procedural step would be a request from the Houston Public Works director for the city council to consider ordinances required to grant the MSD; a firm council hearing or ordinance timeline was not set during the committee meeting.