Photo by Daniel KramerThe polluters who turned Somerville into the Toxic Town described in an award-winning Houston Press story may have had a good result in the first lawsuit they faced, but a second one -- beginning a week from today in the town of Caldwell in Burleson County -- may be different. Somerville residents have sued the BNSF Railway, which ran a tie-producing plant in town. Cancer rates were far higher there, and BNSF failed to install standard pollution controls.In January 2008, th
Photo by Daniel KramerDennis DavisIn 2007, our Todd Spivak did a feature on the "Toxic Town" of Somerville, 90 miles southnorthwest of Houston and home to a Burlington Northern Sante Fe Railway plant.Residents there have much higher cancer rates than normal, a fact some traced to the arsenic, dioxins and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons used by the plant, which at one time was the nation's largest producer of railroad ties.One of the residents, and one of the key parts of the Spivak's stor
