Air quality in SW Dallas & NE Ellis counties (Lake Ridge) (Houston: real estate, credit)

[REmOjO]

For people in the know, there are 3 concrete plants and 1 steel plant around the city of Midlothian: Ashgrove, Holcim, TXI and Chaparral Steel.

TXI has a permit to burn hazardous waste in its cement kilns. This waste is shipped from near and far, even from other states. It may be the largest disposer of hazardous waste in Texas. The hazardous waste is heated to very high temperatures and burned off. Critics charge that little of the waste is eliminated and is spewed into the air as pollutants including carcinogens. It is true that there are pollutants from the stacks, the question is how much and what is the effect on health if anything significant. The Texas Air Quality department has done air monitoring, but nothing conclusive. Some folks have claimed sickness, allergy and even cancer from the plant's pollutants, and they claim the air studies have not been adequate or that there is reason to believe there is danger in the air. Whatever.

It's also true that the EPA declared Ellis (along with Dallas, Tarrant, Collin and Denton counties) in non-attainment in part because of the plants. The wind around this area usually blows from the south although in the spring the winds often come from the north. So Ellis was included among the other counties because the plants were close to the Dallas border and MIGHT be affecting Dallas' air quality.

The cities just north of the plants are Cedar Hill and Grand Prairie. Lake Ridge, in particular is the closest neighborhood in that area of any consequence. So you would expect that if there were to be particular health problems, they would show up in Lake Ridge.

I have lived in Cedar Hill for 9 years now, 2 of those years in the southern end of Lake Ridge. In my experience the affect of those plants is nominal. For the first seven years when I lived in the north end of Cedar Hill, I would have hardly known these plants even existed down Hwy 67 unless I happened to make the rare drive down that far towards Midlothian.

As for the critics who blame their health problems on the plants. I will never say never. But no one will know definitively one way or the other. And I'll also point out that there is an abundance of Eastern Redcedar trees (aka juniperus virginiana) that grow natively every where in Cedar Hill. That's why it's called "CEDAR" Hill. If it weren't for people, the whole city would be covered in a forest of these trees. One thing about these trees. Some people are quite allergic to them. Runny nose. Cough. You name it. So before blaming the plants for health problems, people should get tested to see to what they are allergic. My spouse is allergic to these trees, but she get along ok with allergy medicine when she needs it.

The point here: given the trees and such, get tested for allergies before moving here. Some people may be more susceptible and better off living in the holy, pristine air of Prosper.

I'd also like to point out that there is an EPA executive who lives a couple of streets away. If there were a serious air problem because of the plants, do you think he would have moved here?

Now with that said, Ashgrove is about a mile and a half away from our home. From time to time when the wind blows from the south and Ashgrove is running its kiln, and I am outside, I can smell the plume wafting across the yard. You cannot see it; the visible plume (maybe 20-50 feet across) usually disperses a couple hundred yards from the stack. Now if you didn't know what the smell was, you might think a neighbor was burning some leaves in his yard several blocks away. In fact that is what I thought the first time I noticed it after living there for about a year and a half. Has it ever bugged me? Not so much. The smell is not that strong. A couple of times, the smell bugged me a little, but usually not. Have I ever felt sick or any thing like that? Never. Maybe my spouse, my young children and me are just cancer sticks waiting to croak over any minute...or at least some time next year...all that time mowing and doing landscape work is going to do me in. Ha ha. Doubt it! My neighbor families all seem to be doing just fine too. Older folks, kids, adults. Not one complaint about the air.

Now one reason I made this long post is because I read a recent post on here by a realtor who warned a prospective resident about the "poor air quality" in this area.

HEY REAL ESTATE PERSON, THERE IS NO "POOR AIR QUALITY" PROBLEM IN CEDAR HILL, GRAND PRAIRIE OR MIDLOTHIAN OR ANYWHERE NEARBY FOR THAT MATTER! SO SHUT THE HECK UP! YOU DON'T KNOW WHAT YOU ARE TALKING ABOUT. YOU ARE JUST PASSING ON A RUMOR THAT COMPLETELY OVERSTATES THE AIR ISSUE RELATED TO THE PLANTS.

I can't imagine that it is worse to live near these plants than living near a major highway like hwy 75 or the North Tollway or any place in the metro for all the car pollution that gets dumped into the air.

Lake Ridge is a beautiful area. There is a gorgeous golf club (Tangle Ridge), a magnificent sports park (Valley Ridge Park) where baseball teams play frequently, an ampitheater for Friday night bands in the summer, two scenic disc-golf courses next a to a hiking park and surrounded by a very large outdoors-baptist-camp. Big groups of bicyclers are constantly hogging the roads here because of the beauty here. The Coyotes, hawks, owls, bobcats, roadrunners, armadillos, crows, egrets(?), longhorn, horses, squirrels, etc. don't seem to mind the plants either. They got along for decades before suburbia started closing in on the plants. Suburbia has done more to kill off the wildlife than anything those plants have ever done.

So the next time some dunce thinks the "air quality is poor" around here, get your butt down here on a Saturday morning, put in a round of disc-golf, take a drive through Lake Ridge, and then say how threatening those plants are. I have absolutely no doubt that you will come away with a very different impression about the air quality. What you WILL remember is how scenic this area is.

Sometimes I am in disbelief about how Lake Ridge has gotten such a bad reputation in some circles.

And if as a prospective resident, you are concerned about the Cedar Hill School District. Fine, just stay on the Ellis County side of Lake Ridge in the Midlothian School District. In 2008 Midlothian had 4 exemplary schools, 2 recognized and 2 acceptable. The school district is working hard to keep the trend going and improve the schools even more. Midlothian is going up very quickly from small industrial town to suburbia.

I hope this post gets read and linked again and again and again. This "poor air quality" RUMOR has got to stop! I challenge ANY ONE in the metroplex to put a monitor on their property and on mine and we'll see who has the better/worse air quality. Until you can prove otherwise, SHUT YOUR PIEHOLE!

[ragar01]

A bit of good news for the people that fear these two words "hazardous waste".

TXI to idle 4 of its cement kilns in Midlothian | Dallas Morning News | News for Dallas, Texas | Dallas Business News

[SIZE=+2]TXI to idle 4 of its cement kilns in Midlothian

[/SIZE] [SIZE=-1]10:38 PM CDT on Friday, August 8, 2008

[/SIZE] [SIZE=-1]By BRENDAN M. CASE / The Dallas Morning News
bcase@dallasnews.com / The Dallas Morning News
Randy Lee Loftis contributed to this report [/SIZE] Dallas-based Texas Industries Inc. will idle some cement production at its Midlothian plant as demand slows because of the economic downturn, a company spokesman said Friday.
Four of the company's wet kilns will be shut down. However, the company will continue to operate its larger, more environmentally friendly dry kiln, said Randy Jones, vice president of corporate communications and government affairs.
"Certainly, residential demand has fallen off, and that precipitates other things to slow down," Mr. Jones said. "It's an inventory management action."
Vicki Bryan, a bond analyst in Houston with Gimme Credit LLC, said the move was unexpected.
"They're definitely hunkering down," she said.
The company did not have an estimate Friday on how many of its 270 Midlothian employees will be affected, Mr. Jones said.
It will take 60 to 70 days to idle the four kilns. After that, employees with continuous service of six months or more will be furloughed and can be brought back if necessary, Mr. Jones said. Employees with less than six months of service will be laid off.
From March to May, TXI's cement shipments fell 3 percent compared with the same period last year, according to the company's most recent financial statements.
TXI stock rose $2.49 to close at $50.32 Friday, the day after a larger-than-expected bond offering by the company. Shares are down about 28 percent since the start of the year.
The kiln idling may be good news for local air quality since fuel for the four includes hazardous waste. Already, the state permit for the newer dry kiln, which burns coal and natural gas, requires TXI to idle two of the four older kilns at any given time to limit emissions.
TXI began burning hazardous waste in 1987, a year after another local plant – now owned by Ash Grove Cement Co. of Overland Park, Kan. – began using waste as fuel. TXI is now the only local cement company burning hazardous waste.
"For the first time since 1986, no plant in Ellis County will be burning hazardous waste," said Jim Schermbeck of Downwinders at Risk, a Midlothian clean-air watchdog group. "This is a big deal."

Kudos for Remojo, for bringing this matter up on this board.
Hopefully this story, helps eliminate some of the bad publicity cedar hill, midlothian, and grand prairie areas are having for bad air quality.

[loves2read]

saw that article
guess that is one positive effect of having downturn in construction
although I know people who work there are not happy