ALDINE, Texas — Neighbors are speaking out after learning a concrete batch plant may be built right next to a playground designed for children of all abilities.
The proposed plant would be built on the border of James Driver Inclusive Park, which sits near schools and homes.
Avant Garde Construction Company is behind the project. An application is currently being reviewed by the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality.
“Oh, there’s going to be a lot of dust around this park,” said Tony De Leon, a concerned community member.
“I’ve seen what these batch plants do to a neighborhood, the ones that are closest. It’s terrible. There’s dust, they’re coughing all the time,” said Marina Flores Sugg, who lives nearby.
Harris County Commissioner Adrian Garcia, State Representative Armando Walle and State Senator Carol Alvarado held a press conference protesting the batch plant Wednesday. They brought up concerns about the constant noise, pollution, and air quality surrounding concrete batch plants.
“This community is already overwhelmed. Eight batch concrete plants is enough. We do not need anymore,” said Commissioner Garcia.
A public hearing on the issue will take place Thursday at 7 pm at East Aldine Management District (2909 East Aldine Amphitheatre Drive Houston, Texas 77039).
Meliton Gomez, the owner of Avant Garde Construction Co., said they purchased the land years before the park was developed. He sent a statement to KHOU about the pushback the company is receiving.
“Our belief is in a culture of safety for us and our neighbors - being a good steward and good neighbor. Being a responsible business owner is key for businesses and residents to coexist. We are committed to listening to and working with our community,” said Gomez. “As a small family business, we will operate this plant daily with responsibilities to include: safety, logistics, purchasing, compliance, reporting, and quality.”
The company also sent the following bullet points to address residents’ concerns:
- Concrete, aggregate and cement industries in Texas are the backbone of the state’s infrastructure and economic wellbeing. These industries help build our local communities, homes, highways, bridges, hospitals and parks. They also generate billions in annual revenues and employ 1,000s of skilled employees.
- Our concrete batch plant will hire 4 to 5 local employees to start operations, with expected growth leading to 10 potential positions.
- Our property is not in the middle of our neighborhoods, we are a commercial site. We will have a concrete paved main entrance and exit on highway 59. We will not use our side street, Nuggent, for any commercial truck traffic.
- The park was not developed at the time we started improving this site. We developed our business plan and met all the rules and regulations with the state for a concrete plant.
- We understand these batch plants have a bad stigma. We are in support of regulations, compliance and enforcement when needed for these concrete plants.
- Based on community feedback to our application with TCEQ we have investigated community concerns and fully understand the issues with these concrete plants. We have visited a lot of local concrete plants to learn and understand the community concerns, “we know what a good concrete site looks like”. Yes there are some bad sites that can easily be improved by following TCEQ regulations.
- We want our community to understand that these plants are heavily regulated but the biggest issue at these plants is compliance and how they are operated by irresponsible owners.
- TCEQ air permitting process has been developed through extensive and rigorous data analysis, which incorporates modeling, sampling, monitoring and toxicological information gathered and analyzed to ensure that human health and the environment are protected.
- During our permit application process, TCEQ Air Permits Division reviewed the parameters of our facility (e.g., operating rates, and location to property lines) in order to compare the plant's predicted emission concentrations to appropriate state and federal air quality standards.
- We have a commitment to our community to operate in a responsible and sound way. A good neighbor and environmental steward..
- We feel as if we are being made a “scapegoat”. We have not done anything wrong or outside of TCEQ regulations.
- We believe that addressing the issue of “BAD and dusty” concrete plants begins by challenging our elected officials, from the local and state level, to partner with; TCEQ, Concrete Associations, equipment manufacturers, and related “Good” concrete businesses to create improved legislation and enforcement. A partnership that will better understand and solve the real issue and increase funding to agencies like TCEQ or Harris county to help in enforcement of non-compliant sites.