Park Goers Breathe Easier as Dallas Council’s Effort To Overturn Rejection of New Concrete Plant in Elm Fork Falls Short
The issue is similar to situations statewide in which the cumulative impact is, by law, ignored by state environmental regulators
DALLAS — On Wednesday, the Dallas City Council was unsuccessful in its attempt to approve a new concrete batch plant in an area where 18 other industrial polluters already operate, sparing young athletes who use a popular soccer complex next door from an additional source of air contamination.
The plant’s proposed location – near MoneyGram Park in Elm Fork – is similar to situations across Texas, where state law prevents the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ) from considering the cumulative impacts of industrial facilities clustered in one area or the appropriateness of a proposed location. The proposed concrete plant would have been in addition to another such facility already operating near the park.
“A handful of council members prevented a supermajority vote that would have allowed even more heavy industry to pollute the park complex,” said Kathryn Guerra, Public Citizen’s Dallas-based environmental advocate and TCEQ campaign director. “Community health and safety above everything else should always be the guiding principle for local decision-makers and state regulators. The new plant could have had a negative impact on the health of the 550,000 young athletes who use the park every year. But let’s be clear: the concrete plant was stopped because of city procedure, not because there are the needed state environmental protections to shield gathering places like this park.”
The Dallas City Plan Commission previously rejected the plant’s zoning application, a decision that required a supermajority vote from the city council to overturn it. Members of the city’s park board and environmental commission opposed the plant, as did environmental advocates and professional soccer club FC Dallas, which leases the park for its youth academy.
The city council also voted unanimously to deny the permit renewal of a heavy industrial timber processing operation next to the soccer park. Timber processing generates particulate matter pollution, and park users frequently complain of the odors created by the mulch and composting facility.
Concrete plants also require an air emissions permit from the TCEQ. However, the TCEQ does not account for the cumulative impacts of a new industrial facility where others already exist. Instead, the TCEQ considers each permit application individually. Similarly, the agency is unable to consider the appropriateness of a proposed location, including its impacts on neighbors and the character of the community. Despite a repeated push by environmental advocates, the Texas Legislature has been unwilling to close these loopholes.
Concrete batch plants are a source of harmful particulate matter linked to serious health issues, including heart and respiratory illnesses, low birth weights, impaired brain development, and more. Children are particularly susceptible to the health effects of air pollution when playing outdoors.