Plant near hospital draws concern
Pollution from planned concrete crushing site feared
Houston community leaders are pushing back against a company’s effort to build a concrete crushing plant across the street from Lyndon B. Johnson Hospital, just as the Harris Health System prepares for a possible expansion of the LBJ hospital campus.
Texas Coastal Materials applied in July for an air quality standard permit to construct the plant, which breaks down slabs of broken pavement and other types of concrete, at 5875 Kelley St. in Trinity/Houston Gardens.
Neighborhood leaders say they didn’t find out about the application until Air Alliance Houston, a nonprofit environmental justice group, notified them in early September. Texas Coastal published the required notice of the application in a newspaper that does not serve Houston.
Now, state legislators and county officials have asked the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality for a public meeting for the community to address their concerns about pollution in the area. The state agency plans to hold the meeting but has not yet scheduled a date, according to spokesperson Ricky Richter. Once the meeting is finalized, it will be posted on the agency’s website.
A representative for Texas Coastal could not be reached for comment.
In a statement, Dr. Esmaeil Porsa, Harris Health’s CEO and president, said the hospital already treats many patients with conditions associated with exposure to pollutants from concrete plants.
“Further contributing to the pollution in the vicinity will exacerbate these conditions,” he said. “What is even worse, with the proximity of this proposed plant, is that while a local patient is seeking care and treatment for their condition, they may be exposed to even higher concentrations than while at their own home.”
Neighborhood leaders say the
proposed facility is the latest example of the long-running fight between Houston residents and concrete plants, more than half of which are located in communities of color, a Houston Chronicle analysis found last year.
Like concrete batch plants — where the concrete mix is prepared — concrete crushing plants produce pollutants such as particulate matter, which can cause lung damage and worsen other underlying conditions, health experts say. Houston’s lack of zoning has allowed those facilities to proliferate in neighborhoods where residents settled because of discrimination, environmental health advocates have previously told the Chronicle.
The presence of a public hospital that treats about 80,000 patients annually, including cancer patients, heightens the concern around the proposed crushing facility on Kelley. A concrete batch plant already exists near LBJ Hospital on Homestead, with two others located roughly 2 miles away near the western edge of Kashmere Gardens, according to Air Alliance Houston.
“This is a lot of dust, a lot of noise and truck traffic — things that don’t mix well with people who are trying to heal,” said Amy Dinn, a litigation director for Lone Star Legal Aid, which represents neighborhood groups challenging the TCEQ’s permitting process for concrete plants.
The TCEQ says permitting requirements are designed to control emissions and protect health and the environment “at the property line and beyond.” But while the TCEQ considers proximity to homes, schools and places of worship in the permitting process, it does not consider proximity to hospitals.
Harris Health, meanwhile, received approval from county commissioners to put a $2.5 billion bond proposal on the November ballot. If approved by voters, the project would create a new LBJ Hospital with roughly double the space, in addition to upgrades throughout the system. In his statement, Porsa said that while concrete plants are prohibited from operating within 440 yards of schools, homes and places of worship, nearly a third of the Houston area’s concrete batch plants are within a half-mile of at least one school or child care center. Lawmakers should consider expanding the protection zones and adding medical facilities, he said.
Local officials have little sway over the permitting process for concrete plants. State lawmakers for years have tried to tighten restrictions. State Sen. Borris Miles, D-Houston, whose district includes LBJ Hospital and nearby neighborhoods, filed legislation that would have required state regulators to consider the cumulative public health effects of such plants last year. The bill didn’t make it out of committee.
The only bill related to concrete plants that made it out of the Legislature — one that required more regular permit renewals and state reviews — was vetoed by Gov. Greg Abbott. Facing public pressure, the TCEQ earlier this year proposed regulatory changes that would require concrete batch plants to lower annual production and reduce dust emissions. Those rule changes would not cover concrete crushing plants.
“This proposed concrete plant is precisely why we need to consider the cumulative effects of pollution,” Miles told the Chronicle.
Harris County Attorney Christian Menefee, one of the public officials who requested a TCEQ meeting, said it’s “obvious ... that putting a concrete crushing plant and its heavy dust and pollution up the street from a hospital isn’t right and puts patients at risk.”
“But this is what happens when our state leaders in Austin prioritize industry over communities,” Menefee said in a statement. “My office is using the tools at our disposal to fight this, and will continue to stand up for Harris County’s most vulnerable populations.”
Houston residents will have an opportunity to comment on the permit application for the Kelley Street plant until the end of the upcoming information meeting. TCEQ staff will review the comments before reaching a final decision, Richter said.
“If an application demonstrates that all applicable requirements are met, the TCEQ must grant the permit,” Richter said.
The short-term effects of pollutants produced by concrete plants are well known. Small particles of dust can penetrate deep into the lungs and cause coughing, difficulty breathing or potentially worse outcomes for people who are allergic to materials in concrete, said Yun Hang, assistant professor of environmental sciences at UTHealth Houston School of Public Health.
There is limited evidence of the long-term health effects of concrete dust exposure, she said, but some components in concrete have higher levels of toxicity. Silica dust, for example, has been linked to cancer among workers. The dust — 100 times smaller than a grain of sand — also can cause irreversible lung scarring and damage other organs, she said.
For nearby residents, the proposed plant “adds insult to injury,” said Huey German-Wilson, president of Super Neighborhood 48, which includes Trinity Gardens and Houston Gardens.
German-Wilson has fought illegal dumping in her community for years, helping prompt a Department of Justice investigation of the city of Houston that ended in a settlement this year.
Also, her neighborhood group was among those that accused the TCEQ of civil rights violations when the agency changed permitting rules around batch plants in 2021.
The neighborhood, she noted, is already bordered on all sides by freeways and railroads.
“We can’t take any more air quality issues,” she said.