After Hurricane Ike, Harris County Hazmat crews investigated the discovery of a big container of sodium cyanide.

It reportedly washed-up along the Ship Channel near Greens Bayou.

Officials say they don’t know how much sodium cyanide was in the container, but they say the container could have held several thousand pounds of the chemical.

The Fire Marshall’s office says contractors are removing it and that it was not leaking.

11 News photo

That container is just one of thousands that could pose a threat.

Investigators are now going door to door looking for the toxic debris Ike may have left behind.

The storm made a mess of neighborhoods in Galveston County.

And buried in those piles of debris, experts say, are thousands of cans, tanks, and barrels of unidentified material.

“I am surprised how much toxic stuff is out there,” said EPA contractor Brandon Robinson.

The EPA is helping retrieve and eventually dispose of it all.

And it’s all piling up fast at a collection site in Pasadena.

Manuel Schmaedick is with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.

“The primary stuff we’ve found has been the flammables,” he said.

Crews have discovered everything from household paint to propane and industrial tanks.

One tank that washed up held a 500 gallon mixture of diesel fuel and solvent.

“It’s hazardous materials that would present a threat right off the bat,” said Schmaedick.

He says crews have a monumental job and one the government has done before in Louisiana after Katrina.

But how successful where they?

A report to Congress criticized the clean-up after Katrina.

In particular, how Louisiana disposed of toxic debris in landfills not approved for such use.

The report stated, “Louisiana made decisions about landfill sites and the disposal of debris that some studies indicate could have long term,   negative environmental impacts.”

So where’s Texas sending what it finds?

State environmental officials tell 11 News they have inspectors monitoring 190 staging sites.

They said that crews are checking to make sure contractors pick up hazardous materials and see that it is buried in an approved landfill or incinerated.

The work, experts say, could go on for months.

“New Orleans did take quite awhile,” said Schmaedick.

“We had people there over 12 months,” he said.

The Katrina clean-up collected an astounding 200,000 tanks and drums and 5 million containers of household paint cans and propane tanks.

No one knows if Ike washed up that much here, but retrieving the chemicals can mean going to extremes.

In some cases, crew members had to lift carcasses.

“We lifted propane tanks off dead cows,” said EPA contractor Brandon Robinson.

It is a dirty job, but one that has to be done because no one wants what Ike washed up in their back yards.

If you find a container that you suspect is hazardous, call the National Response Center at (800) 424-8802 or (800) 671-6022.