Joppa residents have been saying for years — if not decades — the factories that nearly surround their community spew toxic chemicals into the air. And they say the result has been generations of health issues, mounting medical bills — and death.
Now, a new study conducted by Texas A&M University researchers and Joppa residents has found that the community of around 2,000 was exposed to, on average, significantly more toxic air pollution than the rest of Dallas County.
During that same time, air quality data showed dangerous pollutants exceeded federal regulator’s national limit — on average once a week.
“Overall, these numbers reveal that the local air pollution burden…within Joppa is two to three times higher than what’s being shown for Dallas County,” Texas A&M toxicologist Natalie Johnson said to KERA. “This could have very important implications.”
Results from a 30-page clinical survey completed by over half of all Joppa households found that a significant number of respondents have “self-reported lifetime asthma.” That's double the Dallas Fort-Worth average and over 30% higher than the national average, according to the researchers.
It’s hard to tell if community members in attendance at Thursday night’s community meeting to present the findings seemed shocked at the disparate numbers. But some who showed up say they’re not sure about the scientists findings — and wanted to know what the data would ultimately be used for.
For others the report is hard evidence of what many have known for years; that Joppa is just one of many Dallas communities dealing with the consequences of environmental racism.
“These results are the first credible scientific proof of what residents already knew,” Joppa Environmental Health Project chair Alicia Kendrick said in a statement. “We breath worse air than everyone else…This is what environmental racism looks like.”
‘A first of its kind study’
The researchers set out to find what the specific pollution levels were locally in Joppa and if the potential health problems in the community could be linked with air pollution.
The study was a partnership between Texas A&M University scientists, environmental health experts and local environmental activists.
The team set up three air monitors in Joppa, tied to the SharedAirDFW network — a well-established air quality research program that makes real-time air data available for residents to use.
Particulate matter (PM) is basically microscopic air pollutants that can have severe health effects if inhaled over a long period of time. Right now, PM is regulated by size, the smallest of which is PM2.5.
“Its much smaller than even a fine grain of sand or human hair,” Johnson said. “PM2.5 can actually travel deep into the airways…and of course have an affect on lung disease.”
But scientists say that far smaller, “ultra-fine” particulates are not regulated – and pose greater health risks.
Johnson also says the particles don’t just affect the lungs. She says all organs in the body can be affected by PM2.5 — and the consequences include cognitive diseases and reproduction.
“There's not really a safe level of exposure,” Johnson said. “Due to the wide range of health effects.”
Community members and researchers working on the project say most of the data cited by city, state and federal officials come from one of the only federal air monitors in Dallas. That data is recorded by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency air monitor, located in Uptown – nine miles away from Joppa.
“The thought that whatever is going on nine miles away can be picked up with this monitor — no,” Community Liaison Misti O’Quinn said about the monitor’s proximity to Joppa.
Data from the three air monitors in Joppa, collected from May to September of 2022, showed a daily average of particulate matter that was two or three times higher than the Dallas County average. In fact, the researchers say that over the same time period, particulate matter pollution exceeded the EPA’s national level — almost once per week.
And the data shows pollution levels exceeding the far stricter standards set by the World Health Organization, on average once a day. WHO’s standards for particulate matter is a third of the what the EPA’s is.
“The EPA PM monitor north of downtown never recorded a violation of the EPA standard during the same time,” a statement from the research team and environmental activists said.
Along with the air quality data, researchers worked with community members to deploy a 30-page survey that asked Joppa households questions about their perceptions of air quality in the community and possible health issues within the household. Only one person per house responded to the survey, with opportunities to answer questions about the other members of their home as well.
The researchers say this is a “first of its kind” environmental survey in the metroplex and over half of Joppa households responded to it.
“This response rate is much, much higher than a typical community survey rate in the United States,” Texas A&M University researcher Ping Ma said. “You usually see between [five percent to 30 percent].”
That survey found that 62% of respondents said that the air quality in Joppa was “poor or very poor” and almost all respondents thought that the air was “making them sick or making their family sick.”
Almost all respondents believe that nearby industry was in part to blame for the air quality. Nearly half of those that answered the survey questions say that they avoid going outside because of the air pollution.
“What that really means is like the people of this community feel so trapped by air pollution that they don’t even come outside their homes,” Kendrick said.
'Nobody fighting for life'
Joppa residents gathered at the New Zion Missionary Church on Thursday night to hear from the team of researchers about their findings. Community leaders handed out headsets for Joppa’s Spanish speaking residents so they could hear the translated presentation.
The room was packed by the time the presentation started. It wasn’t immediately clear how residents felt when the team of researchers presented their findings. Some community members gasped — others seemed unsurprised at the significantly higher levels of pollution in the neighborhood.
And others weren’t convinced of the data.
“Well, the results of this presentation, to me, was pretty much a farce,” Joppa resident Miriam Matthews Fields said on Thursday. “This is not the first time that Joppa has had a very thorough survey.”
But Fields later told KERA that she believed that “a lot of the data is credible.” She was also one of the health survey respondents.
Fields says as part of a previous grant, Downwinders at Risk along with other researchers set up an air quality monitor in her yard — but it wasn’t operational all the time. The research team said they opted for the SharedAirDFW monitors because of the quality of the data.
“The SharedAir monitors are more sophisticated technology,” Texas A&M researcher Xiara Day said. “So we partnered with [University of Texas at Dallas] to where essentially we have access to all the raw data.”
Some of the questions asked by community members sparked controversy at the meeting. That led to something that happens often in Joppa between the different community groups — bickering and accusations. And some residents decided to leave the meeting all together.
“We’re going to have to unify and we’re going to have to get this done,” Joppa resident Emmanuel Davis said. “We got everybody in this community fighting for many different things and nobody fighting for life.”
Davis says the burden of environmental racism is made even harder by infighting between the different community groups.
“I am thankful for all these people who came here to do this presentation…and all the hard work and effort they put into this,” Joppa resident Julio Chaparro said at the meeting. “And I thank them because they don’t live here. They come here to help us as a community.”
Chaparro and his family have only lived in Joppa for about two years but says he wants to be standing side by side with the residents that have been fighting these issues for generations.
Chaparro is the co-chair of the new community group born out of the study — Justice for Joppa . He says the community needs to work together to move forward.
“How about we do something pretty with all this industry that sits right next to us?” Chaparro said. “Parks...shopping centers, stores, stuff that would suit us better.”
Not just Joppa
According to the study, Joppa ranks in the top 11% of bad air quality nationwide. The community has around 500 homes and a population of about 2,000.
“This is the small community of Joppa…this is not DFW,” Kendrick said. “Were also in the top worst 12 percent for air toxin risk…again just Joppa.”
KERA has reported extensively on the closure of the Austin Bridge and Road asphalt plant in Joppa. Residents were told at a community meeting earlier this year that it was up to them to provide city officials with proof of environmental harm.
And during the same period, a KERA investigation into city finances found that while officials told residents they were looking for the “best path forward” for the plant — they also paid millions to the asphalt plant’s owners for construction materials.
“Use the data to actually change things for the residents,” Kendrick said. “Change your view a little bit.”
And Joppa’s story isn’t unique.
Just recently residents from Joppa, West Dallas and environmental groups gathered at a public hearing about yet another batch plant permit, hosted by state environmental regulators. Joppa sits downwind of the plant that is looking to get its permit renewed.
“You’re just a part of disenfranchising this already historic community,” Kendrick said at the early August public hearing. “The city and the community of Joppa are tired of the bare minimum from our neighbors.”
In West Dallas, a group of residents have been pushing for an 80-year-old shingle factory to be shut down. After two years of what they say has been pushback from City Hall, elected officials and other environmental groups, they’re trying to file legal proceedings on their own that could shut the plant down.
Residents and environmental activists say the shingle plant has been operating for decades under the wrong zoning.
But so far, city officials have refused to accept the resident’s request, citing new state legislation that blocks what the community is asking for. That legislation is narrowly tailored to the West Dallas shingle plant battle, according to the bill’s analysis text.
“They’re giving us the run around…no one wants to take this application,” Singleton United/Unidos leader and West Dallas resident Janie Cisneros said earlier this month. “Doors keep getting shut.”
And across Texas, heavy industry — specifically asphalt batch plants — can get permits from state regulators without providing current air emissions data. Instead of regular testing, environmental regulators rely on plant operators to supply emissions data – should regulators conduct an inspection.
But communities pay the price for what some claim are very loose permitting requirements.
What's next
As part of the study, researchers asked residents what they thought viable solutions were for getting Joppa’s air quality — and community health — back on track.
The majority of respondents said they wanted to reduce the emissions that come out of the smokestacks around Joppa. Others said they wanted to see the smokestacks gone for good, the railway electrified and a reduction in waste burning.
“How we can start moving these things away from us is through this Forward Dallas comprehensive plan,” Kendrick said.
The city led initiative aims to update zoning around the city and may include Joppa. Kendrick says that’s the first step in a larger community plan.
“It’s time to bring routine clinical care the neighborhood,” Kendrick said. “And we are talking to health care providers about taking over this charge.”
Community members and researchers say they want the study findings published in academic and medical journals. Some residents also say they would like to use the data to leverage legal action against the polluters.
But community leaders say that will take unity across the entire Joppa neighborhood — and the different environmental groups that work in the area.
Got a tip? Email Nathan Collins at ncollins@kera.org. You can follow Nathan on Twitter @nathannotforyou.
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