Affordable housing project in East Houston built on contaminated land [Video]

HOUSTON – Huge swaths of newly exposed toxic waste have been unearthed near a controversial east Houston affordable housing project currently under construction.

Critics believe the waste poses a “clear and present danger” to future residents.

The project, known as 800 Middle Street, involves 400 units of low income housing, is also being built in the immediate shadow of a giant radio tower.

FOX 26 reporter Greg Groogan surveyed the newly exposed waste with Alan Atkinson, a neighborhood activist and developer who has been fighting the project for nearly five years.

“What’s new is that they have knocked the trees down, and underneath the trees is all this exposed ash,” said Atkinson.

“We are talking about ash with lead, with dioxin, with a whole range of ugly poisonous chemicals, right?” asked Groogan.

“Barium, arsenic, dioxins. So, this ash, which …