Kashmere Gardens, Fifth Ward gets $20 million for solar energy generation and ecosystem enhancements – Houston Public Media

Lucio Vasquez/Houston Public Media

Northeast Houston residents around a cancer-causing contamination site will see ecosystem enhancements and a solar energy system thanks to a $20 million grant from the Environmental Protection Agency.

Houston City Council unanimously voted to accept the grant on Wednesday.

“The purpose of that project is to uplift communities that have been challenged by environmental injustices,” said Loren Hopkins, chief environmental science officer for the Houston Health Department.

The soil under a Union Pacific Railyard in the Kashmere Gardens and Fifth Ward area has long been contaminated by the cancer-causing chemical creosote, used to treat wood in the 1900s. A plume of soil pollution extends under more than 100 homes in the area.

Part of the grant will fund nature-based solutions, like the installation of native trees and grasses, intended to address runoff from the contaminated site as well as flooding and heat.

“We’re expecting nature-based changes throughout the area to work on just improving the quality of the air and the water and the runoff and the soil,” Hopkins said.

The grant will also fund a community solar energy system. Residents will be trained and employed to construct the system.

“We have available land in Fifth Ward, and so we always ask what we are going to do with this land,” said Council Member Tarsha Jackson, who represents the area. “This is what we can do. Putting solar on this land — that’s going to help residents if we have another storm with power outages.”

Hopkins said the health department is still selecting a location for the solar system.

On Wednesday, Council Members Julian Ramirez and Twila Carter expressed concerns. They pointed to a stalled solar project in the Sunnyside neighborhood, where residents were promised the conversion of a 240-acre landfill into a solar farm. The initiative floundered this year as the company sought funding.

Dori Wolfe, Houston-area program coordinator for nonprofit advocacy group Solar Neighbors United, said community engagement will be important for the success of the Northeast Houston project.

“Having community at the table — knowing what the benefits are and how they’re going to be distributed — is vital to getting acceptance, and that is one of the things that Sunnyside solar array has to keep working on,” Wolfe said.

According to the ordinance approved by the City Council, the solar system in Fifth Ward and Kashmere Gardens is expected to improve the area’s resilience in the case of outages during climate disasters. The start date for construction is still up in the air as the city’s health department selects a site for the solar array.