The Fifth Ward cancer cluster lawsuit is a group of at least 49 personal injury and property damage cases brought by residents of Houston’s Fifth Ward and Kashmere Gardens neighborhoods against Union Pacific Railroad, alleging that creosote contamination from a former wood-treating facility on Liberty Road caused cancers and property harm. The cases have been consolidated into a multidistrict litigation proceeding before Harris County Judge Sylvia Matthews. No trials have been completed and no settlements have been publicly announced.
Who Is Suing and What They Claim
The first suit was filed in February 2020 by Betty Chenier and 12 other residents in state court. They sought more than $50 million in damages for property damage and personal injuries, including cancer diagnoses and medical expenses, on theories of negligence, fraud, and nuisance. The complaint alleged Union Pacific failed to warn residents about cancer-causing contaminants in their soil and groundwater.
The contamination traces to the Houston Wood Preserving Works at 4910 Liberty Road, where Southern Pacific Railroad treated wooden railroad ties with creosote from 1899 until 1984. Union Pacific inherited the 125-acre site in 1997 through its merger with Southern Pacific. Creosote, classified as a likely human carcinogen, seeped into soil and groundwater over decades. In 2014, Union Pacific asked nearby property owners to sign restrictive covenants prohibiting the use of their groundwater, a step plaintiffs have cited as evidence the company knew about the contamination’s reach.
The Cancer Cluster Finding Behind the Suits
In August 2019, the Texas Department of State Health Services confirmed a cancer cluster in the area. Its initial assessment, covering 10 census tracts and cancer data from 2000 to 2016, found that three of five cancers examined occurred at higher-than-expected rates. A supplemental assessment published in January 2021 looked at 21 census tracts and found childhood acute lymphoblastic leukemia was statistically significantly elevated across the study area, with 28 observed cases against 16.2 expected. In the census tract closest to the former facility, six childhood ALL cases were detected against 1.3 expected, nearly five times the expected rate.
Where the Litigation Stands
By March 2025, at least 49 lawsuits had been filed by Fifth Ward and Kashmere Gardens residents, all consolidated before Judge Matthews.
A case expected to reach trial first hit a procedural wall. Engineering firms Pastor, Behling & Wheeler and Environmental Resources Management Southwest, which had installed soil caps and other control measures at Union Pacific’s Englewood Rail Yard, argued the plaintiffs failed to file a “certificate of merit” required under Texas law for suits against engineering firms. In September 2025, the Fourteenth Court of Appeals sided with the engineering firms and dismissed the claims against them. The ruling did not affect the claims against Union Pacific itself. At least 26 remaining cases handled by the Gibson Law Firm face the same certificate-of-merit issue, and a status conference on the pending motions to dismiss is set for April 9, 2026 before Judge Matthews.
Earlier, Union Pacific tried to knock the litigation out at the front end. It moved to dismiss the first case under the Texas Citizens Participation Act, a law aimed at frivolous suits that chill free speech. In February 2022, the Texas Court of Appeals in Houston affirmed the trial court’s denial of that motion, allowing the property-damage and personal-injury claims to move forward. Union Pacific’s petition for further review was denied.
Union Pacific’s Position
Union Pacific has not conceded that the creosote plume caused the cancer cluster. The company has declined to participate in the city’s voluntary relocation program, saying the link between the plume and the cancers has not been definitively established. On the site itself, the railroad has consolidated more than 11,000 tons of creosote-impacted soil under an engineered barrier cap and continues to test groundwater, remove creosote, and inspect remediated areas. It has also emphasized that of the 176 private properties tested under EPA oversight, none exceeded levels requiring urgent action.
Parallel Government Action
Residents’ suits are not the only legal pressure on Union Pacific. In July 2022, the City of Houston, Harris County, and the Bayou City Initiative sent 90-day notices of intent to sue Union Pacific in federal court under the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act. Harris County Attorney Christian Menefee said Fifth Ward residents had suffered higher rates of certain cancers due to hazardous waste from the facility. The notice was addressed to Union Pacific’s CEO along with the EPA, U.S. Department of Justice, and the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality. The city and county sought injunctive relief to force cleanup. Whether the federal lawsuit was ultimately filed after the notice period is not confirmed in the available record.
On February 27, 2023, the EPA announced a $6.8 million administrative settlement with Union Pacific. Under the consent order, the railroad must investigate and evaluate potential contamination both on-site and in surrounding neighborhoods under the federal Superfund statute. The scope includes soil sampling on private properties, vapor intrusion investigations at potentially affected residences, evaluation of the off-site storm sewer system, a community involvement plan, and a risk evaluation. Groundwater investigation and cleanup continue separately under a TCEQ hazardous waste permit. The EPA has noted that groundwater at the site is not used for drinking water.
What Soil Testing Has Shown
Testing under the EPA consent order covered 176 private properties. Of those, 135 came in below EPA screening levels and 41 above, though Union Pacific has said none exceeded levels requiring urgent action. The screening levels are conservative benchmarks calculated for daily exposure of children up to age six.
Public sites drew more concern. At the Julia C. Hester House, a community center operated by Harris County Precinct 1 Commissioner Rodney Ellis’s office, soil in a grassy field near the daycare tested at 220 and 54 parts per trillion for dioxin, above the EPA’s residential screening level of 48 parts per trillion. Officials marked the areas with orange paint and installed fencing. Four of seven samples at Boyce Dorian Park and one of five at Dogan Elementary School also exceeded screening levels. Follow-up testing at the Hester House by June 2025 brought dozens of additional samples back below screening levels, and EPA project coordinator Casey Luckett-Snyder said there was “no risk from dioxin exposure to anyone who recreates or plays behind the Hester House.”
Voluntary Relocation and the Development Hold
Separate from the litigation, the Houston City Council approved a $5 million voluntary relocation fund in September 2023 for roughly 110 parcels, including 41 occupied residential properties, sitting directly over or within a few blocks of the creosote plume. Eligible homeowners can sell their homes to the city and receive up to $250,000 toward a comparable home elsewhere, with a forgivable loan covering any price difference if they stay in the new home for three years. Renters are offered $10,000 for moving costs and initial rent. In February 2024, the Council unanimously approved an additional $2 million for program administration. Take-up has been slow: by November 2023, seven homeowners and two renters had expressed interest.
In February 2024, the city also placed an administrative hold on residential and commercial development in the affected area, freezing permits for the 110 parcels. City Attorney Arturo Michel said the hold would let the city inspect each permit application and coordinate with the EPA and TCEQ. The city characterized the action as an administrative hold rather than a formal moratorium, a distinction driven by past Texas Supreme Court rulings that limited municipalities’ power to impose environmental building restrictions. The move followed a Houston Landing investigation published in December 2023 reporting that the city had permitted 1,501 single-family homes, duplexes, and apartment complexes within the broader cancer cluster ZIP codes between 2018 and 2023.
The Current Status
As of mid-2026, the multidistrict litigation against Union Pacific continues before Judge Matthews, with certificate-of-merit issues complicating some cases but leaving the core claims against the railroad intact. Union Pacific and the EPA are still evaluating soil sampling data to determine whether cleanup of residential properties is necessary. That assessment had been expected by summer 2025 but had not been publicly released as of the EPA’s most recent site update on May 26, 2026. The site remains monitored under both Superfund authority and the TCEQ hazardous waste permit program.