Two Dallas environmental justice groups are calling on the city to shut down a pair of heavy industrial sites they say are polluting nearby areas.
During a news conference in front of City Hall Monday, advocates with Downwinders at Risk and Singleton United/Unidos said the GAF and TAMKO asphalt shingle factories in their neighborhoods are harming their health and the environment.
"Every day the residents of West Dallas and Joppa are facing environmental harms that stem from years of neglect and disinvestment,” said Cindy Hua, board chair of Downwinders at Risk.
The groups are partnering on what they call the “Toxic Twins” campaign to call on the city council to shut down the two factories through a process known as amortization, wherein the city can start the scheduled closure process of nonconforming land uses.
“We call it the ‘Toxic Twins’ because both Joppa and West Dallas are some of the most polluted communities in Dallas. Both have major asphalt shingle producers as the linchpin polluters in their community,” said Caleb Roberts, executive director of Downwinders at Risk. “It says something about Dallas that these two polluters are in these neighborhoods.”
Roberts told KERA that while the two groups have partnered in the past, this campaign is a more concerted effort to get the plants shut down.
“The City of Dallas council members do have the ability to put in an application to request for amortization, but they have to confer with the [non-conforming use] fund and estimate if they have enough money in the fund to pay for the removal of a non-conforming use,” Roberts said.
The nonconforming use fund is a mechanism within the city's zoning regulations to address uses of land that were lawful when established but no longer comply with current zoning laws.
Roberts added advocates also hope to raise awareness of environmental injustices in Dallas through a series of events planned in the coming months.
A spokesperson for GAF told KERA in a written statement that the company operates in compliance with its air permit and all relevant federal and state regulations.
“Since announcing plans to close the West Dallas facility in July 2029, GAF has also voluntarily lowered the facility’s maximum output capacity to further reduce emissions, and has implemented further emission reduction strategies, which have been demonstrated through stack testing,” read the statement.
TAMKO did not respond to KERA’s request for comment but on its website maintains it “has a great history with many decades of safe and sustainable practices.”
The announcement comes as a Dallas county judge deliberates a lawsuit filed by Singleton United/Unidos leader Janie Cisneros against the City of Dallas for blocking the process that would pave the way to get the GAF plant shut down. She claimed the city’s change to the development code disallowing residents from initiating amortization — made official in February of this year — retroactively applied to her filing and was unconstitutional.
Pablo Arauz Peña is KERA’s growth and infrastructure reporter. Got a tip? Email Pablo at parauzpena@kera.org.
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