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Questions or Comments: superfnd@tceq.texas.gov

Wigginsville Road Groundwater Plume Site

This groundwater plume in Montgomery County is being addressed under the State Superfund Program.

Site Background

The Wigginsville Road Groundwater Plume site consists of a mercury-contaminated groundwater plume of unknown origin in the Chicot Aquifer. The site is located on the eastern edge of the Conroe Oilfield, a historically dense region of oil and gas exploration, southeast of Conroe, Montgomery County, Texas. The approximate center of the site is near a local church. Routine monitoring of a well by TCEQ's Public Drinking Water section at the church led to the discovery of the mercury contamination in October 2013. Due to ongoing detections of mercury, the church plugged and abandoned the well and installed a new well, which has had no detections of mercury contamination. The groundwater migration pathway (the pathway by which a contaminant may contact receptors) is the primary pathway of concern at the site.

Superfund Actions Taken to Date

  • The site was referred to the TCEQ’s Superfund Site Discovery and Assessment Program in May 2015.
  • SSDAP investigations through 2019 detected mercury in eight groundwater wells in the site area, one of which exceeded the maximum contaminant level. All wells with detections of mercury contamination withdraw groundwater from the Chicot Aquifer. SSDAP did not detect mercury in samples from the deeper Evangeline Aquifer.
  • In June of 2017, TCEQ installed a filtration system on an impacted residential well and is maintaining the system and monitoring water quality.
  • TCEQ prepared a hazard ranking system document for the Wigginsville Road Groundwater Plume site in February 2021.

Current Status

The HRS score for the site is 17.95 which makes the site eligible for state Superfund. TCEQ intends to propose the site to the state Superfund registry.

TCEQ will hold a public meeting to receive comments on the proposal to list the site on the registry. The meeting will be held April 22, 2021 at 6:00 pm via a Microsoft Teams live event webcast.

On March 12, 2021, the public notice was published in the Texas Register (46 TexReg 1678) and The Courier of Montgomery County newspaper.

Public Meeting Information

TCEQ held a public meeting, on April 22, 2021, at 6:00 pm, via Microsoft Live Event webcast, to receive comments on the proposal to list the site on the registry.