Austin Industries’ Asphalt Plant to Cease Operations in Joppa Neighborhood June 26
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An asphalt plant that Joppa neighbors claim has been emitting harmful pollutants will shut down at the end of the month.
Company officials with Dallas-based Austin Bridge and Road announced last week they would cease operations June 26 and remove equipment from the site southeast of downtown Dallas in City Council District 7.
The issue has been contentious among residents for years and may have cost Councilmember Adam Bazaldua a few votes in the May election — although ultimately it was Bazaldua who secured an agreement with the plant to close up shop.
The incumbent councilmember emerged victorious May 6, claiming 51.57 percent of the vote over three opponents.
As Joppa residents rejoiced in the news of the plant closing operations, Bazaluda said in a press release that, “despite misinformation being prevalent … we were successful on our ultimate goal in keeping our community safe.”
“We have continued to work diligently with Austin Industries for the past 14 months to find the most effective path forward while putting the health and safety of our community first,” Bazaluda said. “I am pleased that Austin Industries has agreed to expedite its timeline for this project. In my discussions since being on council, Austin Industries has shown a desire to be a good neighbor and have acknowledged a clear consensus in the Joppa community for heavy industry to no longer exist adjacent to their residential neighborhood … Through these discussions, the residents of Joppa are a top priority, which is why it is important that we keep strict scrutiny for this case to ensure that businesses in our district are able to flourish without compromising the safety and quality of life in our community.”
Environmental Justice
The City of Dallas adopted in 2020 a Comprehensive Environmental & Climate Action Plan (CECAP) to mitigate risks of climate change. The document is intended to serve as a guideline when new development is approved and policies are considered.
Bazaldua has been a staunch advocate for the CECAP, bringing it up in April when he was the only council member who supported a building code change that would require electric vehicle wiring in new homes.
Local media reported earlier this month that Austin Industries, a provider of construction materials for the city and county, will look for a new site and “source products from elsewhere to ensure work is not disrupted.”
The activist group Downwinders at Risk has fought the plant and, on occasion, the councilman who represents the area.
“Founded as a Freedman’s town and surrounded on three sides by industrial polluters, and intentionally isolated from the rest of Dallas, the Joppa neighborhood is one of the most extreme examples of the racist zoning that still drives current land use in [Dallas],” the organization’s website states. “From the late 1800s forward, industries and people deemed ‘undesirable’ by Dallas Power Brokers were redlined to the Trinity River floodplains that split the city in two — North and South. Black and Brown residents were forced to live side-by-side with slaughterhouses, lead smelters, tanneries, and cement plants.”
In a public statement shortly after Austin Industries made its announcement to cease operations in Joppa, Downwinders at Risk posted a link to an NBCDFW report on the asphalt plant’s departure, highlighting a quote from Alicia Kendrick, chair of the Joppa Environmental Health Project.
“We live right next to and are surrounded by industry at all times,” Kendrick said. “It’s clanking and banging and smoking at all hours of the night and at all hours of the day. There’s no stop to it. I want [my kids] to understand that, even if you were given the worst, there’s still some things you can make out of it that is extremely beautiful. And that’s just the history of our people.”
