The restoration action for the Brio Refining/Dixie Oil Processors joint Natural Resource and Damage Assessment case has been completed, including monitoring for success criteria. The Texas Natural Resource Trustees, including the Service, worked cooperatively with the responsible parties, negotiated a settlement to restore trust resources injured as a result of hazardous materials being released from both sites. The project created 6 acres of riparian riparian
Definition of riparian habitat or riparian areas.
Learn more about riparian freshwater wetland, and preserved 102 acres of bottomland hardwood forest, and 19 acres of pasture will act as a buffer between the forest, the adjacent marsh, and the nearest development. The restoration project, which is protected in perpetuity will improve water quality in the Mud Gully and Clear Creek watershed, and provide valuable habitat for migratory birds.
The Brio Refining and Dixie Oil Processing facilities, which operated from 1957 through 1982, were Superfund sites, listed as such due to the release of hazardous substances including copper, chromium, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, styrene tars and vinyl chloride. Runoff from both sites drain to a tributary feeding Clear Creek, and runoff from the combined sites included levels of contaminants toxic to aquatic organisms. Over the years, injury to aquatic organisms such as fish, crayfish and frogs, as well as birds and mammals occurred as a result of contact with the open pits. In 1993, a fish consumption advisory for Clear Creek was issued.
The Trustees for the settlement are the U.S. Department of the Interior representing the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS); Department of Commerce representing the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA); Texas Parks and Wildlife Department (TPWD); Texas General Land Office (GLO); and Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ).
Ecological Services Division of Environmental Review Completes Another NRDAR Habitat Restoration Project - Congratulations!
