Tennessee to Texas (Houston, Dallas, San Antonio: house, employment, school districts)

[helimech58]

Hi All,

I am a father of three and a husband of one. We are trying to move to Texas and need some pointers. We have three children (7,7&5) and would like to move near Midlothian. I picked this area because I will hopefully be working at Eurocopter in Grand Prairie. I want to live in a smaller town with maybe a few acres. From what I can tell is that I will have to be more than a 30 min commute to GP. I have not ruled out a subdivision but would prefer to have some acreage. I have read a little about the concrete kilns and I am sort of worried. Have there been any long term studies about this? Oh yeah, I am looking to spend about 200k for house and land. Thanks for the help

[momof2dfw]

Well, since you know about the concrete kilns (and the other large industrial businesses there that are heavy polluters) there is no need to tell you about those. I will suggest that you do some VERY HEAVY research though into this area and the problems faced because of them. Try looking at some of the old archives of the Dallas Morning News, Ft Worth Star Telegram, DMagazine, Texas Monthly, etc just to find out more. Those businesses are protected like Fort Knox.

If you want to stay South of D/FW try looking closer to Waxahachie. On the North side of D/FW you have Roanoke, Argyle, Justin, Rhome, Haslet and even Boyd. All smaller town living but w/o the heavy pollution.

[Trainwreck20]

Personally, I would not worry as much about the cement kilns as I would the steel industry. As a simple precaution, try to live up-wind from the plants, based on the prevailing winds.

There is quite a bit of 'press' about these plants, but very little knowledge. That does not mean they are bad or good, just that they are somewhat of an unknown entity, factually speaking.

Momof2: I would not disagree that these plants are possibly a problem, but I currently have an issue with almost anything in the popular press that even begins to approach 'technical'. I have worked in the environmental field for many years, and even when 'they' (the press) have the right target, they cite all the wrong reasons. Hype and hysteria trump fact way too often and the press publishes only what the public wants to hear.

I can almost guarantee that most of the air pollution issues (health, visibility, whatever) in DWF, Austin, and San Antonio (and probably Houston) are due to personal vehicles. But cars are sacred. No one wants to read about how they are contributing to the pollution or how they personally will have to pay more or change their lifestyle to improve anything. It MUST be the industry, that is what we want to hear, so that is what is published.

The net result is that we are driving our pretty clean industry (granted, not as clean as most of europe) out of the country and it is being replaced in the third world and China with terribly polluting industry. Our prices stay the same, but our employment base leaves the country and the pollution is multiplied many-fold elsewhere.

Sorry, bit of a soap-box there....and I personally would not want to live too near the cement kilns, so don't get me wrong - it is the press that I get annoyed at

[momof2dfw]

Oh, I agree, the media has a tidbit of a tendency to hype things a little too much. And I'm being nice there . Yes, our cars are a problem for sure. I just wish someone would make it easier to not always need it. Like schools and the bus service. If someone could go to work for the school districts in the transportation dept that has any inkling about logistics..... and if they would provide more reliable bus service for those that are just at 2 miles, WE WOULD USE IT!!! Do you know how many cars sit in front of every school in the entire D/FW area EVERY school day? Sitting there running for at least 30 minutes. Oops, found my soapbox. Anyway, yep something needs to be done about the cars traffic. I said in another thread that it is really sad that only a few counties around the Dallas area have to abide by the emmissions testing for vehicles annual inspection when there are so many that come into or thru Dallas County everyday that are exempt. It needs to be statewide. But you have to admit, those businesses down there do get a pass when it comes to some of the pollutants. Of course I want them to stay here w/ the jobs and not go overseas but they need to clean up. Isn't the TXI plant down there getting close to their deadline on their grandfather clause for something w/ the pollutants or the type of plant or something?

I would avoid Midlothian too and that is not the only reason. It is just not that type of small town atmosphere that one pictures when they think about small town living. Way too industrial, seeing large industrial plants, lots of industrial trucks and trains is not really my vision of small town life. Personally, it just seems really dry and dusty everytime we go thru there. Not to mention the large railyard they have.

[Trainwreck20]

I think all 'grandfathered' facilites have lost that exemption, but there was an existing facility permit (EFP) that was created that was relatively easy to get. The idea, of course, is to get them under a permit then regulate from there, which really is not a bad idea.

Regarding the schools: Hear yah! I have to drive by the local elementary school every day, and there are hundreds of cars dropping off kids. What is funny is there was an article on the BBC about how efficient the US school bus system is as compared to Britain. Never thought of it as efficient, but I guess every child in the school system can theoretically catch a bus. Wouldn't it be great if they did? Vehicle miles/day would go down enormously. The drop in traffic when school lets out is phenomenal, think if that was year round

Regarding the press: I have a friend (okay, a co-workers friend) who has almost had her life destroyed by an erroneous news article. Of course, the paper will not correct the massively incorrect information they spread, since it was all based on 'witnesses'. Of course, there were many other people who had 'correct' information, but the ones with incorrect were much more sensational.

[stargazer]

I want to tell you about my personal experience. I moved to Southwest Dallas county in 93 and moved away in 2002. In that time I started having lots of lung issues and my daughter did too. When we moved, we moved to Florida and were there till last year, my daughter did not once have an asthma attack and it seemed like our issues started to disappear after awhile. I was worried about moving back home because at the time I deemed it due to the it being such a huge metro area. Well since being back, I have not coughed at all and my daughter's lungs are good whereas the pediatrician we used in ( in Midlothian) deemed her to have asthma. My family inparticular has lung issues and if you have any sort of problem with them, I would not move out there. My brother and sister in law just moved out there a couple of months ago. You have to turn off of 67 and go by the first kiln to get to their home. It bothered me so much when I saw that, I had asked them if they knew what they were getting into and they said they were healthy and did not forsee any issues. Well as of lately, my sister in law and her oldest have been coughing and coughing for many weeks. I think there is a report out there about how more children go to the doctor for ear infections than any other area in Dallas. I believe that, my daughter had to get tubes because of all the infections. She also had to be on a nebulizer. As of lately and knowing from my experience, I would not move back directly in the path of the Kilns. I love that area but I just don't want to do that. I lived in Cedar Hill and Duncanville.

[helimech58]

I would like to thank all of you for that information. I started thinking about it more and now it bothers me. I want to move to that general area though and was thinking maybe Red Oak. Would that be too close?

[neddy]

I am in San Antonio and have no clue how close Red Oak is to the kilns however my friend and hos family live in Red Oak and love it to death. Small enough for them but close to everything

[helimech58]

Thanks Neddy. That makes me feel better about the move. I still have a lot of research to do before I even visit but I feel a little warmer.