U.S. probes illegal dumping in Houston

WASHINGTON — The Justice Department said Friday it is investigating illegal dumping in Houston, including dead bodies and medical waste, that officials said is plaguing Black and Hispanic neighborhoods in the nation’s fourth-largest city.

The investigation will be led by the department’s civil-rights division and will examine whether city police and other departments discriminate against Black and Hispanic residents in violation of federal civil-rights laws. Besides bodies, items dumped in majority Black or Hispanic neighborhoods include appliances, furniture and even vandalized ATM machines, Assistant Attorney General Kristen Clarke said Friday at a news conference.

“Illegal dumping is a longstanding environmental justice issue, and like many other environmental justice issues, it often disproportionately burdens Black and Latino communities,” said Clarke, who heads the department’s civil-rights division.

The department’s new office of enivornmental justice is focused on “fenceline communities” in Houston and other cities that have been exposed to air and water pollution from industrial sites.

The Houston investigation will focus on Trinity/Houston Gardens, a predominantly Black and Hispanic neighborhood in northeastern Houston. Residents frequently complain about illegal dumping there, Clarke said.

Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner, who is Black, said Friday he was “stunned and disappointed to learn about the investigation.”

“Despite the DOJ’s pronouncements, my office received no advanced notice,” Turner said in a statement, calling the investigation “absurd, baseless and without merit.”

The city has spent millions of dollars to fight illegal dumping, Turner said.

The Houston City Council doubled the maximum fine for illegal dumping to $4,000 last year, Turner said, and encourages residents to call 311 to register complaints.

Mary Benton, a spokeswoman for Turner, said Friday she was “not aware of ” dead bodies being dumped in Houston.

During the first six months of the year, Houston residents called the city’s 311 line more than 5,400 times to complain about illegal dumping, The Houston Chronicle reported.

The federal inquiry follows a complaint by Lone Star Legal Aid, a nonprofit advocacy group that helps low-income residents in Texas and Arkansas on a range of legal issues, including landlord-tenant disputes, foreclosures, disaster recovery and environmental justice.

Rep. Al Green, D-Texas, whose district includes southwestern Houston, blasted what he called a “rush-to-judgment announcement” by the Justice Department without notifying the city or local members of Congress.