Toxic chemicals at the Jones Road Groundwater Plume Superfund Site

The Jones Road Groundwater Plume Superfund Site in Harris County is a site where a dry cleaning company operated from 1988 to 2002. The company contaminated soil and groundwater in the surrounding residential and commercial areas with perchloroethylene (PCE, also called tetrachloroethylene), trichloroethylene (TCE), and their breakdown products. In 2003 the area was designated as a Superfund site.

PCE and TCE are manufactured chemicals used for dry cleaning clothing and degreasing metals. When they contaminate soil as they have at the Jones Road site, they evaporate into the air. People nearby can breathe in the PCE and TCE, even if they are indoors. Breathing air contaminated with PCE or TCE for even a short period of time can cause dizziness, drowsiness, and headache. Breathing high amounts of these chemicals can cause coma and death.

When trapped in groundwater as they are at the Jones Road site, PCE and TCE can persist for long periods of time and potentially contaminate drinking water supplies. Drinking water contaminated with PCE or TCE can cause rashes as well as brain, heart, kidney, and liver damage. It may also be linked to infertility, miscarriage, and birth defects. 

Once in the environment, PCE can also be broken down into TCE, which can then be broken down into other harmful chemicals as well. The US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) classifies both PCE and TCE as cancer-causing chemicals. The most common cancers seen in people exposed to these chemicals are kidney and liver cancers.

The community is being exposed to chemicals from the site

EPA has taken some action to mitigate the community’s exposure to these chemicals at the Jones Road site. Starting in 2008, it installed a waterline to offer surrounding homes and businesses with municipal water so they wouldn’t use their contaminated groundwater wells. While it still does routine outreach to properties in the area to get them connected to the waterline, some properties still use private wells for drinking water. Residents who have bought homes in the area say they hadn’t been alerted to the potential contamination in their groundwater wells. EPA’s semi-annual sampling of some private wells, as well as THEA’s independent sampling of private wells in the area, has found PCE contamination above safe levels as recently as 2025.

To mitigate PCE and TCE contamination of the air, in 2018 EPA installed exhaust systems in 3 suites of the shopping center on the site. However, no residential properties at the site have received these mitigation systems. That means residents may continue to breathe PCE and TCE in their indoor air, and EPA’s air monitoring at one residence has detected PCE as recently as 2025.

Overall, EPA’s mitigation efforts are insufficient to protect people from air and water contamination of PCE and its breakdown products. In its 2022 Five-Year Review of the site, EPA wrote “the remedy for the Jones Road Groundwater Plume Superfund site is not protective,” indicating that they are aware that the nearby community is being exposed to chemicals from the site. Health effects reported in the community include Parkinson’s Disease, spinal tumors, childhood leukemia, and adult leukemia. A study from the Texas Department of State Health Services found that the incidence of childhood leukemia in the community immediately North of the site was two times above the state average. These illnesses could be a result of exposure to chemicals from the site.

The danger of long-term exposure to low levels of toxic chemicals

It has been 23 years since the area became a Superfund site, and EPA acknowledges that it is still not protective of human health. The nearby community has been exposed to these toxic chemicals for decades, and continue to be exposed through their air and water. While EPA’s mitigation measures may have decreased the concentrations of PCE and TCE the community is exposed to, long term exposure to even low doses of toxic chemicals can have devastating consequences. 

Epidemiological studies have found that for many chemicals, exposure to low doses - at the amounts that the general population is usually exposed to - are still associated with adverse health effects. This upends much of the previous thinking among experts that only exposure to high doses of chemicals - such as from disasters, occupational exposure, or war - could cause health effects. 

This new scientific understanding means that a much larger population than previously thought is at risk of unsafe exposure to toxic chemicals. It underscores the need for EPA to not just decrease the exposure to PCE and TCE at the Jones Road site, but to completely eliminate the exposure and remove these chemicals from the community in order to protect public health.