Groundwater quality at the Falcon Refinery Superfund Site near Ingleside, Texas, January 2024

The Falcon Refinery Superfund Site (hereinafter referred to as “the Site”) is located in San Patricio County near Ingleside, Texas. The Site occupies approximately 104 noncontiguous acres that are divided into the North Site, the South Site, and a barge dock facility. Surface water drainage from the Site enters wetlands along the southeastern section of the property associated with this abandoned refinery. The wetlands connect to the Intracoastal Waterway and Redfish Bay, which connects Corpus Christi Bay to the Gulf of Mexico. In addition to the abandoned refinery, the site currently (June 2024) includes seven large (greater than 50 feet in diameter) aboveground storage tanks that are in the process of being disassembled and repaired or taken off-site. At full capacity, the refinery could process as much as 40,000 barrels of oil per day, and the primary products consisted of naphtha, jet fuel, kerosene, diesel, and fuel oil. Refinery activities and on-site waste disposal practices have contaminated the Site with hazardous chemicals (U.S. Environmental Protection Agency [EPA], 2017).

To characterize the current status of groundwater quality, the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) in cooperation with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), collected water-quality samples from 11 monitoring wells at the Site in January 2024. The samples were analyzed for volatile organic compounds, semivolatile organic compounds, metals (major ions and trace elements, including mercury), and total dissolved solids.