"Protesters Urge Hasty Cleanup at Abandoned Chemical Plant"

"Residents from a modest southeast Houston neighborhood pointed Sunday toward a lagoon of algae-covered water with a pungent chemical smell that filled the parking lot of an abandoned cleaning facility for chemical trucks. Only some weeds and a cyclone fence separate the facility from homes and a charter school.

CES Environmental Services Inc. at 4904 Griggs Road, a shuttered company that once generated as much as $8 million a year in revenue, filed for bankruptcy and shut its doors in 2010 after paying millions to resolve residential complaints and safety violations that caused explosions and allegedly killed a worker there, records show.

Today, a rusty "for sale" sign is staked in front of the dilapidated 8-acre facility, but what worries nearby residents is that a heavy downpour two weeks ago washed some of that stagnant pool down their streets and into their yards. A dirty pool still remained Sunday, despite days of scorching heat since the rain."

Cindy Horswell reports for the Houston Chronicle August 11, 2014.