Fort Worth-area cement plant wants to double its emissions. These moms are fighting it.
Abigail Slye, 32, remembers the first time she drove down U.S. Highway 287 from Fort Worth to Midlothian. Her husband had a new coaching job at a local high school and they were in search of their first home.
They drove past one of the three cement plants in the city, and he joked, “Look, it’s Six Flags over Midlothian,” Slye said.
She asked her real estate agent about the white clouds spewing from the top of a towering smoke stack visible from their front yard. Just steam, she remembers her Realtor saying.
It took the mother of two several years before she realized the clouds were made of carbon monoxide, sulfur dioxide, nitrogen oxide and particulate matter so small it can enter the bloodstream through the lungs and cause breathing and heart problems, according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.
“I had to get involved and do something,” Slye said. “My son’s elementary school is at the edge of the property of one of these cement plants. But it’s hard to get people to care.”
Pollution from Midlothian, known as the Cement Capital of Texas, isn’t restricted to the city. The EPA lists Ellis County as part of a nine-county smog zone in North Texas, along with Tarrant, Dallas, Collin and Denton counties. Winds from the south and southeast carry pollutants from as far as the Gulf of Mexico, according to Chris Klaus, senior program manager of the North Central Texas Council of Governments’ air quality department.
In September, Slye teamed with Laura Hunt, a pediatrician whose 4-year-old daughter began having respiratory problems after the family moved to Midlothian in 2015. Together they started Midlothian Breathe.
The group wants to stall a plan from Swiss-based cement manufacturer Holcim US Inc., which wants to nearly double the carbon monoxide it can put into the air, according to a request filed with the state and obtained by the Star-Telegram under a Texas open records request.
Holcim is asking the state to remove the annual carbon emissions cap of 4,303 tons per year from both of its production lines and rescind to a previous limit of 3,555 tons per year for each line. The company also wants to increase its use of pure petroleum coke from 60% of its “flexible” fuel to 100% in one of its lines.
In an email, Holcim spokeswoman Jocelyn Gerst wrote that while the company wants the emissions caps removed, it has no plans to increase pollution and will continue to meet all state and federal environmental regulations. She also wrote that Petroleum coke, also known as petcoke, is only one of the fuel sources used at the Midlothian cement plant. Others include natural gas, coal, and alternative fuels, such as old tires that would otherwise end up in a landfill, she wrote.
What is petroleum coke?
Petroleum coke is a byproduct of the petroleum refining process. While it is solid carbon and resembles coal, it creates particles that are less than 10 micrometers in diameter. The EPA labels any particles smaller than 10 micrometers as dangerous, though studies on rats have shown that it has a low level of toxicity.
“Our commitment continues to be to produce cement that is crucial to the economy of North Texas and beyond and doing so in a manner that meets our emission limits,” Gerst wrote.
But Midlothian Breathe’s six members and its supporters remain skeptical.
“If your child’s health was threatened by a disease, you’d want a second opinion,” said Hunt, who works in a hospital’s pediatric unit caring for underweight and premature newborns.
“All of us are being threatened by nearly 3,000 tons of additional air pollution that the state says is perfectly harmless,” Hunt said. “There’s no way that’s true.”
Midlothian sits on a limestone reserve that could last 600 years, making it a coveted place for cement production, according to the city. The first plant was built in the early 1960s by Texas Industries. TXI was purchased by Martin Marietta in 2015 and employs approximately 173 people. Other major cement operations in Midlothian include Ash Grove Texas LP, with 121 employees and Holcim with 145 workers.
The amendment application for Holcim Inc.’s permit is under technical review by the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality. Once the technical review of the application is complete, Holcim will be required to publish a preliminary decision. After that, TCEQ will have a 30-day public comment period followed by a public meeting.
Midlothian Breathe has asked the City Council to match the $3,000 it has raised to hire an independent expert to evaluate the request and conduct its own study before the public meeting, which has not been scheduled.
During a Jan. 28 Midlothian City Council Meeting, Slye joined four other Midlothian Breathe members to appeal for support. The four women read prepared remarks to the six city councilmen and mayor, telling personal stories of the effects the plant has had on their families. The women asked the council to take part in protecting air quality in the city.
Slye said the group’s approach was meant to be peaceful — no megaphones or shouting — but strong.
“We’re not out here with picket signs. We just want to set up a meeting,” Slye said after the council meeting.
Midlothian city manager Chris Dick told the Star-Telegram the city is not interested in meeting with the group or partnering with it for an independent study.
“We don’t have any jurisdiction over that permit,” Dick said. “Midlothian has already been heavily tested for decades, and every time they’ve concluded we are in compliance with EPA and state standards.”
Kuruvilla John, chairman of the engineering department at the University of North Texas, wonders about the environmental effects of burning additional petcoke.
“Burning 100% petcoke will change the chemical characteristic of the particulate matter,” John said. “Even if the levels of emission are in compliance, it’s important to also look at the toxicity and composition of the particulate matter.”
This story was originally published February 14, 2020 at 1:38 PM.
