Harbor island History
The property on Harbor Island that is now owned by the Port Authority was for many decades (since the 1920s’s) privately owned and used as a crude oil receiving, shipping, and storage facility.
On January 31, 1996, the Port Authority purchased 15.126 acres of land from Fin-Tex Pipe Line Co. (Atofina). This property hosted a number of oil storage tanks and one ship dock fronting on the Corpus Christi Ship Channel (CCSC) that had existed since the 1930’s. As a condition of the sale to the Port Authority, Atofina agreed to remove the oil storage tanks and associated underground pipelines and remediate the site to Texas Railroad Commisssion (TXRRC) standards for industrial facilities. The oil storage tanks and associated underground pipelines were removed and cleanup action occurred. On June 4, 2003, the TXRRC issued a letter of concurrence TXRRC Letter of Concurrence June 4, 2003 for Atofina’s Remediation Completion Report. A deed recordation of the property’s past land use was filed with the County and on August 23, 2003, a “No Further Action” letter was submitted to Atofina by the TXRRC.
On August 20 ,1996, the Port Authority acquired ownership of another 214.168 acres of Harbor Island from Koch Pipeline Company, L.P. (Koch), who had recently purchased the property from Exxon. This property included a number of oil storage tanks and two small ship docks fronting on the CCSC that had existed and been operated by Exxon since the 1930’s. Exxon had previously remediated contaminated soils on the property to TXRRC standards for industrial facilities from 1996 to 1999. On November 9, 1999, the TXRRC issued to Exxon a “No Further Action” letter for the site excluding the tank bottom areas. In 2003, the Port Authority removed the oil storage tanks from the site. In 2004 to late 2005, the Port Authority contracted with several companies to remove the aboveground and buried pipelines that were associated with the tank farm.
In October 2009, Port Authority began remediation of the areas at the site that were not immediately adjacent to or beneath the historic tanks and piping. The Port Authority also remediated other areas that ExxonMobil did not address. Remediation of the 214.168 acres was completed in August 2010 and the Port Authority submitted a report of its remediation activities to the TXRRC in February 2011.
Around the same time, TXRRC directed ExxonMobil to install groundwater monitoring wells at the property. Two quarterly sampling events were completed in 2011. In November 2012, ExxonMobil submitted to TXRRC a complete report of the soil remediation and groundwater monitoring activities conducted by both Port Authority  The deed recording limited activities in six areas of Harbor Island that had obstructions which prevented remediation to TXRCC standards. On January 5, 2015, a “No Further Action” letter was submitted to ExxonMobil by the TXRRC.
The Port Authority recently completed demolition work that removed the obstructions in the six areas identified in the deed recording. The remaining six hot areas were sampled in 2019 to determine the extent of contamination. In November 2020, the six areas were over excavated and the remaining contaminated soil was hauled to an approved landfill. The Port Authority is currently in the process of updating the deed record to remove the six areas with use limitations and prohibit the use of groundwater in the upper groundwater bearing unit for potable water and/or irrigation purposes across the site. Additionally, the Port Authority has developed a Groundwater Management Plan for management of groundwater and storm water during construction activities
