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Jun 16, 2009 8:28 pm US/Central
Local Mother Takes Cement Plant Feud To Congress
MIDLOTHIAN (CBS 11 / TXA 21) ―
A North Texas business has been fighting with neighboring families for years. Now one Texas mother is taking the feud to congress.
Wednesday, the
Environmental Protection Agency meets in Dallas in hopes of clearing the air in Midlothian. A local cement plant's license is also up for renewal.
Local and state officials as well as
TXI cement company representatives will also be at the meeting to discuss new cement plant emission rules.
The
meeting to discuss the new cement plant emission rules will be held at 9:30 a.m. at the DFW International Airport Grand Hyatt hotel in Terminal D, lower level.
Several local officials are confirmed to attend, including Arlington Mayor Richard Cluck, State Senator Wendy Davis, State Representative Lon Burnam, air pollution victims and local and state environmental and public health groups. Visuals will also include the return of the "smokestack woman."
Meanwhile, a local mom will head to Capital Hill in hopes of blocking future production.
"There's been very little regulation in terms of the kinds of hazardous emissions that come out," said former Olympian, author and environmental activist Alexandra Allred.
Allred said she believes the TXI plant in Midlothian is causing pollution and will testify before congress this week against TXI and other area cement plants. She said the plants are making her ten year-old son Tommy sick.
"I take all three of these to help me with my asthma," said Tommy as he shuffled through a bin of medicines and breathing tubes.
Other Midlothian residents say they too have suffered increased health problems because of the plant's reported annual emissions of more than 24,000 pounds of dioxins and alleged carcinogens. The EPA and environmental activists agree.
Jim Schermeeck with the group
Downwinders at Risk plans to be at Wednesday's EPA meeting in Dallas. "We have more old, obsolete kilns than anybody else in the country. Ones that are left over from the 60's and 70's called the old "wet" kilns. They don't have the bells and whistles of modern kilns."
However, many of Midlothian's residents point out the three cement plants, including TXI, are the area's largest employers. TXI has more than 2,000 employees statewide and had a job growth of 6.7 percent in the past year. They also have a gross income of nearly $1.1 billion.
"I don't think they should shut it down, but the sky is always murky and real dusty and cloudy," said life-long Midlothian resident Zach Scantling.
The plant is the largest cement producer in Texas, and this area is called the "Cement Capital" for a reason.
Longtime Midlothian resident Denise Covey sides with the plants. "I think they're great," she said. "We need all the employment that we can get right now. I'm unemployed, my daughter's unemployed. I mean, we need all that we can get to help Midlothian out. It's the cement capital."
In a written statement to CBS11/TXA21, TXI officials stated they "will be participating directly in the rulemaking process through written comments provided to EPA and stands ready, along with PCA, to assist the EPA in identifying and developing the data to support more reasonable standards. Cement is a critical building material that is vital to the growth of our economy."
However some say despite the money, there's no price tag on their health, and Allred hopes to reinforce that with congress on Thursday. "It's really wreaked havoc on our kids and my child is just one of too many to count."
That's a point Schermeeck and other activists say they plan to hammer home in Wednesday's meeting in Dallas. "The idea is treating these old plants the same as the new plants and making them modernized," he said.
(© MMIX, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)
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