Harris County sued the Texas Commission on Environment Quality on Wednesday for approving a permit for a concrete crushing plant located near Lyndon B. Johnson Hospital in Houston’s Kashmere Gardens.
The lawsuit – filed in behalf of Harris Health, Trinity Gardens and Kashmere Gardens Super Neighborhood councils – argues that the plant, which is operated by Texas Coastal Materials, will be less than 440 yards from a chapel within the hospital and that the facility doesn’t comply with the National Ambient Air Quality Standards for the harmful particulate matter that the facility emits into the air.
“What we’ve seen traditionally is an unwillingness from state officials to address the pressing needs of these communities,” said Harris County Attorney Christian Menefee. “If you look at the folks in Fifth Ward and Kashmere Gardens, there’s been substantial community pushback to this proposal to this concrete crushing site and you have yet to see anyone in the state taking this pushback seriously.”
In a statement, TCEQ said it does not comment on pending litigation.
Texas Coastal Materials applied for an air quality standard permit last summer, but residents did not discover the new application until September.
The company published a required notice about its plant in El Perico Spanish newspaper and in the Highlands Star/Crosby Courier – a non-Houston publication 30 miles from the proposed plant – in August. There was no notice in a Houston paper until October.
The proposed concrete crushing plant also comes just as Houston voters approved a $2.5 billion bond project to expand LBJ Hospital and Clinics last November.
After months of community opposition, public meetings and letters of complaint, the TCEQ approved the permit in January 2024.
Concrete crushing plants break up large pieces of concrete, asphalt and rock into smaller pieces, producing dust that is small enough for people to breathe. This dust can cause lung damage, respiratory problems and cancer.
The Harris County Attorney’s office, along with Lone Star Legal Aid, filed a motion to overturn the permit, but received no reply. Community activists and leaders also called on Governor Greg Abbott to overturn the decision, with no response.
“We’re at this lawsuit stage because all our other options are exhausted,” Menefee said. “It’s all really accumulated to us going to the courts to get opposition, but the main point here is that every step of the way there has been substantial community and public official pushback.”
The county’s lawsuit alleges that the standard air quality permit that all concrete facilities need is deficient. The standard permit has not been updated by TCEQ since March 2008. However, the Environmental Protection Agency has updated its National Ambient Air Quality Standards four times since then.
Most recently, in February this year, the agency lowered the annual standards for PM 2.5 – the smallest level of particulate matter – from 12 to 9 µg/m3, meaning the facilities have to follow a more stringent environmental protocol.
In response to public comments, the TCEQ said it evaluated the permit before the new standards went into effect, but they would re-evaluate and take necessary steps to ensure compliance with them.
A copy of the lawsuit, which was filed in Travis County in a state district court, is here; I got it in a press release from the County Attorney’s office. There’s a lot about this permit that’s shady – the lack of notice to the residents and the seemingly deliberate use of outdated standards being the obvious examples. All par for the course with the TCEQ, so the question is whether or not they will face any constraints from the courts. It may be awhile before we find out, but if we can at least keep the construction from starting in the meantime, that will be a win for the affected residents. The Chron has more.