Federal environmental regulators have announced a new program to study the impacts of heavy industry in the West Dallas area. The decision comes after years of residents and environmental advocates sounding the alarm about the industrial sites they believe are polluting their community.
The announcement comes during multiple campaigns calling for the closure of an 80-year-old shingle plant by community members and environmental advocates. Some West Dallas residents say city hall has been silent about their calls to action.
Officials from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) officials say they will collect air, soil, water — and even fish tissue — samples starting in December to put data behind community members concerns.
EPA and Dallas city officials said during Monday evening’s meeting that the initiative was spurred by the work of local activists who have been working on environmental justice issues in the community.
Janie Cisneros is the leader of Singleton United/Unidos, a group pushing clean air for the community — starting with the closure of the GAF Materials shingle factory.
“Thank you to the EPA for this opportunity,” Cisneros said during the meeting. “I really want to thank you for leading with courage and having the gumption to do that because that’s something we’re currently not seeing at the local level.”
But regulators say this program is only the second of its kind in the country — and they say they’re “making it up” as they go along. The program has no standard operating procedure currently, but officials say they want to involve community members as much as possible.
Historically impacted
EPA Region 6 Administrator Earthea Nance says the agency recognizes the West Dallas community’s struggle with environmental justice — and the community advocacy around clean air from Singleton United/Unidos and another environmental group called West Dallas 1.
“That’s exactly why EPA chose this area of the city to consider for our cumulative impact assessment pilot project,” Nance said. “The second of its kind in the nation.”
Nance says EPA will be specifically assessing the impacts of cement batch plants on West Dallas. The program will also assess other potential pollution sources — like storm water contamination, mobile emission sources and other toxic exposures.
“And to assess whether there are potential violations of the particulate matter National Ambient Air Quality Standards,” Nance said. “And exceedances of applicable state health and environmental affects in the surrounding community.”
Environmental regulators will be conducting air modeling to see if a newly proposed concrete batch plant permit is restrictive enough to protect communities. That permit is regulated by the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality.
The EPA’s air modeling will also take into consideration “the emission from mobile sources (traffic) and other industrial facilities in the area.”
In addition, the agency will also analyze soil and water samples from the area — along with fish tissue. Regulators say they want to make sure the water where residents fish and swim is free of bacterial contaminants along with other toxic waste.
“Communities are the eyes and ears on the ground,” Nance said. “We have worked alongside the community, tapping into their knowledge to identify places to do the environmental sampling.”
Nance says those areas include schools, churches and Fish Trap Lake — which is directly across from the GAF facility.
‘Something we’re not used to’
Cisneros says she is happy about the EPA’s decision to launch the new program in West Dallas. And she says its out of the norm of what her community has had to deal with in the past from local, state and federal officials.
“Its showing care and compassion,” Cisneros said. “And that’s something…we’re not used to in this community.”
Cisneros and other community activists claim District 6 Council Member Omar Narvaez, who represents West Dallas, has not been forthcoming about the issue and has not taken their calls to action seriously.
During the Monday evening meeting, Narvaez said Dallas is a leader in the environmental arena — and stressed the importance work working together.
“Now I know for some we are not moving fast enough, and for others we are moving along,” Narvaez said. “This is not a war of [us versus them], this is a united front.”
But Narvaez also pointed to what he calls “bullying” during the lead up to the EPA’s announcement — but did not elaborate on who or what he was exactly talking about.
“I wasn’t sure what he meant by that,” Janie said after the meeting. “I think people have their different perspectives of things…if we are asking somebody to take accountability for the decision making – or lack of decision making — I wouldn’t consider that bullying if that’s what he was referring to.”
The program launch comes after city officials refused to accept Cisnero’s application for a scheduled closure of the GAF facility — twice. City officials cited a new state law that changed the process for the closure — or amortization.
But a draft of the ordinance city staff aimed at bringing the city into compliance with the new law, removed residents right to file for the closure. Members of the city’s zoning advisory board directed city attorneys to rethink the proposal – saying the ordinance shouldn’t remove an avenue for community members to advocate for themselves.
And the application was years in the making, according to Cisneros.
In 2022, GAF executives, city officials and West Dallas community members came together to start a series of negotiations that were aimed at creating a timeline for the company leaving the area.
“This was because we were threatening for amortization,” Cisneros told KERA in early October. “Our councilman…convinced us to not amortize…to instead let’s try and negotiate with the company.”
Cisneros says they settled on a month of negotiations — under the provision that the city would file for amortization if the community’s wishes weren’t met.
The zoning advisory group is scheduled to reconsider the item in mid-November.
‘Another tool in our toolbox’
Residents in attendance at the meeting wanted to know just how the EPA data would be used. Regulators say they can’t make any guarantees, but the data could be used to inform medical research, policymaking and enforcement actions.
“After collecting all the data, EPA will take all of the information and draft a summary report that will be available to the public,” Nance said. “This…report will be another tool in our toolbox used to take any needed action to better protect the community.”
Residents hope the study will be used as leverage when another polluting industry is seeking to set up shop in their community — and communities like theirs.
Cisneros says the EPA’s project is a proactive first step in remedying decades of environmental racism – an issue that plagues many Dallas communities of color. But she also wished the announcement had been more community focused.
“I think it would have been more impactful tonight…to actually have more members of the community present,” Cisneros said.
But at the end of the day, Cisneros says her community just wants to see action — and they are tired of "the lip service."
"So they're taking action. They found the funding, they're taking the time, they're prioritizing this area," Cisneros said. "And what is that saying to the residents? It's saying you're important, you lives matter.
Got a tip? Email Nathan Collins at ncollins@kera.org. You can follow Nathan on Twitter @nathannotforyou.
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