Where are the biggest polluters in Dallas-Fort Worth? These new maps will show you
Born and raised in west Dallas, Raul Reyes knows he’s been exposed to pollution from nearby industrial plants, including the asphalt shingle factory owned by major roofing manufacturer GAF. The area has long been a “hotbed for environmental injustices,” said Reyes, who serves as president of the neighborhood coalition West Dallas1.
“I’m 47 years old, and it’s always been part of my life,” Reyes said. “What I’m trying to do now as a community leader is to make sure that my children don’t have to deal with it. We’ve been taking stabs at industrial business in the area and saying: We don’t want you here.”
Now, as WestDallas1 prepares to challenge GAF’s permit renewal, a collection of industrial air pollution data and maps released by Paul Quinn College’s Urban Research Initiative on Tuesday will help Reyes and other North Texans learn more about the largest polluters in their counties.
The data itself is nothing new, since it’s taken from the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality’s public 2019 statewide emissions inventory. The Environmental Protection Agency collects the data from states for enforcement of the Clean Air Act’s priority pollutants, which include particulate matter, nitrogen oxide, lead, carbon monoxide, sulfur dioxide, and volatile organic compounds.
However, Texas posts the data in raw spreadsheets online “without explanation or context, and no publicity,” according to the Urban Research Initiative.
“No one has taken the effort to break down these numbers and map them and show that this is particulate matter or lead pollution and it is being emitted in these quantities near your home,” said Evelyn Mayo, a fellow at Paul Quinn College and the author of the analysis. “Many communities welcome the data as further validation to stop the gaslighting on their lived experience with pollution.”
Mayo’s report, which will be released annually, provides maps of the top 20 polluters in 10 counties in Dallas-Fort Worth that are considered non-attainment zones, or areas that do not meet federal ozone and air quality standards. Those areas include Tarrant, Dallas, Ellis, Parker, Wise and Johnson counties, according to the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality.
So who are the biggest polluters in Tarrant County? Mayo’s analysis ranks the General Motors assembly plant in Arlington as the No. 1 polluter, with Exgen Handley Power’s plant in east Fort Worth following in second. The Village Creek Wastewater Treatment Plant and landfill in Fort Worth come in third and fourth.
Ranjana Bhandari, the executive director of environmental advocacy group Liveable Arlington, said she was unsurprised to see three compressor stations ranked in the top 10 polluters in Tarrant County. The industrial facilities maintain the flow and pressure of natural gas as they remove gas from the pipeline, re-pressurize it and send it back into the pipeline, according to environmental research group Earthworks.
She recently received complaints from Arlington residents living downwind from two compressor stations, many of whom reported health issues. Bhandari has spent time documenting pollution at both and said she felt ill for days after being exposed to emissions of volatile organic compounds often associated with natural gas production.
“I could taste the pollution, and it felt like I had the flu every time I went,” Bhandari said. “Neither of those compressor stations we monitor made the list in the top 20 polluters. My first thought was: if these two aren’t even on the list, how bad are the ones that are on the list? What are people being exposed to?”
Mayo, who serves as the chair of North Texas environmental activism group Downwinders at Risk, also compiled a list of the top 30 polluters across the Metroplex.
Six of the top 10 are in Ellis County, and four of the top five call Midlothian, the “cement capital of Texas,” home. Ellis County accounts for 45% of all industrial air pollution in North Texas, according to the report.
Activists in Midlothian have spent more than a year fighting cement company Holcim’s bid to increase the amount of carbon monoxide it can release into the air from 4,300 tons to 7,100 tons per year. The facility emitted 7,952 tons of total emissions in 2019, making it the No. 1 polluter in all of North Texas, according to state data.
Laura Hunt, a pediatrician and leader of community group Midlothian Breathe, has led the charge to challenge Holcim’s permit application to the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality.
The commission determined last year that the application “meets the requirements of applicable law,” but has not yet decided if it will grant contested case hearings, similar to civil trials in state district court, to residents like Hunt. She expects commissioners to make that decision during a hearing later this spring.
“It’s like I can’t ever go more than a month or two before some other bomb is dropped,” Hunt said. “I just can’t help but get riled up. Of course I wish it weren’t that way, because it’s frustrating, but at the same time, this fight has kept us together and make progress moving forward.”
Bhandari has filed her share of complaints with the commission, and has often been disappointed when her efforts have not led to change from elected officials. Mayo’s report will help fill the gap, Bhandari said, between what residents are experiencing on a day-to-day basis and the evidence they can show to regulators.
“There is this generalized sense that the air quality in the region is poor, but until we know exactly what is contributing to it, we can’t even begin to look for solutions,” Bhandari said. “We can’t even begin to figure out who’s responsible and what needs to be done. It’s really, really important for the data to be laid out this way.”
For Reyes and West Dallas1, the report confirmed what they already intuitively believed: GAF is the fourth largest polluter in Dallas County, because of the large amounts of sulfur dioxide the facility releases into the air. Residents, including Reyes, have smelled the pollution and experienced symptoms like fatigue, headaches and nausea.
The coalition’s environmental justice committee is learning how to use equipment like PurpleAir monitors, a brand of low-cost air quality sensors that have become increasingly popular among environmental activists across Texas, including in Midlothian. Reyes said the group is determined to keep new industrial facilities from popping up in the neighborhood.
“The data shows we’re not wrong for asking GAF to move,” Reyes said. “We’re not wrong for asking them to get their act together and move out of the area. There’s no other choice to do that, because if I can smell you, then you are violating our space.”
This story was originally published March 25, 2021 at 5:15 AM.
