The Contaminación Collection, or the McAllen Toxic Plume Case, documents the 180 Mexican American families in McAllen, Texas, who were impacted by toxic petroleum hydrocarbon (benzene leakage) contamination in an area of 1.5 million square feet.
The collection consists of source material compiled by attorneys Scott McLain and Richard Roth, who represented the McAllen families. Materials include 500+ visual aids, 800+ boxes of plaintiffs and evidence, and 650+ hours of audio-visual testimonies related to the toxic plume recorded from 1991 to 2004.
The collection contains restricted material and is closed for research. All digitized audio-visual materials are available via Internet Archive Contaminación Collection.
Grant Funding: Digitization of the audio-visual materials, including community and expert testimonies, was made possible by the Texas State Library and Archives Commission.
Click here to access the Contaminación Collection Research Guide.
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Monitoring Event Summary & Status Report
Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ) and Bruce Britten
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2004 court supervised Dominion excavation.
Reed, McLain and Guerrero, L.L.P.
"Discovered relatively fresh gray tape and pipe 100 feet from Etchison". Photograph overlaid on birds-eye graphic of street and buildings.
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2004 court supervised Dominion excavation confirmed Dominion pipe missing north and south of Business 83.
Reed, McLain and Guerrero, L.L.P.
"Where is the pipe?". Photograph overlaid on birds-eye graphic of street and buildings.
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2004 court supervised Dominion excavation confirmed Dominion pipe missing north and south of Business 83.
Reed, McLain and Guerrero, L.L.P.
"Contaminated" typed across the image. "The pipe is gone". Photograph overlaid on birds-eye graphic of street and buildings.
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Aerial photograph of McAllen around Business 83 and 23rd Street.
Reed, McLain and Guerrero, L.L.P.
Contaminated areas indicated by color overlay.
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Contamination resulting from railroad activity: track 3
Reed, McLain and Guerrero, L.L.P.
Graphic image showing train cars and the soil and groundwater underneath with contaminated areas
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Corroded, rusted 2 inch pipe in close proximity to 4 inch pipe.
Reed, McLain and Guerrero, L.L.P.
Photograph overlaid onto birds-eye graphic map showing 23rd and 25th Streets and Beech and Business 83.
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Corroded, rusted, 4 inch pipe and casing dripping contaminated water in area of contaminated soil
Reed, McLain and Guerrero, L.L.P.
Photograph overlaid on birds-eye graphic of street and buildings showing 25th Street, Beech, and Business 83.
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Corroded, rusted, uncapped, buried underground natural gas 2 inch valve and contaminated soil.
Reed, McLain and Guerrero, L.L.P.
"Uncapped buried underground natural gas valve for 2 inch pipe". "4 inch natural gas pipe". Photograph overlaid on birds-eye graphic of street and buildings at 23rd Street and Business 83.
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Mrs. Ozuna's family and home
Reed, McLain and Guerrero, L.L.P.
Photographs of the Ozuna's family and home.
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Natural gas pipe in contact with corroded, rusted, natural gas casing in area of contaminated soil.
Reed, McLain and Guerrero, L.L.P.
Photograph overlaid onto birds-eye graphic map of 23rd Street and Business 83.
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Oily tape, corroded, rusted oily pipe and contaminated soil
Reed, McLain and Guerrero, L.L.P.
Photographs overlaid onto birds-eye graphic map showing Business 83.
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Old pipe and valves removed and replaced with new pipe prior to pressure test
Reed, McLain and Guerrero, L.L.P.
Photographs overlaid on birds-eye graphic of streets and buildings showing Business 83, Beech, Cedar, and 23rd Streets.
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Relatively fresh gray tape covering dissolved coating of natural gas pipe in area of contaminated soil
Reed, McLain and Guerrero, L.L.P.
Photograph overlaid on birds-eye graphic of street and buildings at 25th Street.
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Some of the corroded, rusted pipe with holes buried beneath the railroad property
Reed, McLain and Guerrero, L.L.P.
Photographs overlaid onto birds-eye view graphic map showing Beech, Business 83, 23rd and 25th Streets.
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Characterization of Samples Pipeline Excavation Project McAllen Texas Site Preliminary Report
Worldwide Geosciences, Inc.
Preliminary report for McAllen Pipeline Excavation Project, including two soil samples and two water samples taken from the site in February 2004.
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![City of McAllen : Hidalgo County, TX [map] by Exploration Technologies, Inc.](https://scholarworks.utrgv.edu/contaminacion/1014/thumbnail.jpg "City of McAllen : Hidalgo County, TX [map] by Exploration Technologies, Inc.")
City of McAllen : Hidalgo County, TX [map]
Exploration Technologies, Inc.
Prepared for Reed, Carrera & McLain, L.L.P. by Exploration Technologies, Inc. Map showing concentrations of BTEX (benzene, toluene, ethylbenzene and xylenes) in area studied in McAllen and natural gas / condensate pipelines. Map shows the area from Galveston Avenue north to Ebony Avenue, and from 25th Street east to 20th Street.
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Site Assessment / Initial Remedial Action
Phillips Properties (McAllen, TX) and Valley Scientific Remediation (Palmview, TX)
"This report presents the data, analyses, results, and recommendations from the Initial Remedial Actions and Phase II Environmental Site Assessment. This report has been performed by Valley Scientific Remediation, Inc. (VSR) in the last quarter of 1991 and the first quarter of 1992, on behalf of Phillips Properties, Inc. at the Phillips Properties# 1 McAllen facility, located at 2215 West Business Hwy 83, near the southeast corner of Business Highway 83 and 23rd st., McAllen, Texas."
