West Dallas - Environmental History

Environmental History

West Dallas originated as a community on the outskirts of Dallas. The community was founded in 1886. In 1909 the Thomas A. Edison School was built. Murphy Metals (later known as RSR Corporation), a secondary lead smelter processing company, opened a 63-acre (250,000 m2) facility and in 1934 started operations at the site. The process of secondary lead smelting melts the collected lead materials or, lead scrap, into metallic lead that can then be used to cast into molds Significant lead emissions can occur from poorly controlled refining, casting, and drossing operations The city of Dallas annexed West Dallas into the city limits in 1954. Before this year, many residents lived in an area lacking the basic services because they resided outside the city lines. Then in 1956 a 3,500 unit public housing complex was to be built just north of the RSR lead smelter facility. The southern edge of the public housing complex was located 50 feet (15 m) from the lead smelter’s property line. In 1968 the City of Dallas enacted an ordinance prohibiting no more than 5 micrograms per cubic meter over a 30 day period. This act went unenforced because in the 1960s RSR Corp West Dallas facility released more than 269 tons of lead particles into the air each year. During this time few residents could afford the luxury of air condition, so in the summers they kept there doors and windows open to combat the heat, directly exposing them to the toxins in the air, even in their own homes. It wasn’t until 1972 that Dallas officials learned that lead could be finding its way into the bloodstreams of children who lived in West Dallas and the bordering community of East Oak Cliff. The Dallas Health Department then conducted a study of their own. What they found was children living near smelters had elevated levels of lead. Lead was able to reach their bloodstream through the air, soil and households in and around their living environments. In areas near smelters children had 36 percent increase in blood lead levels. The city failed to take immediate action and in 1974 the city sued local smelters. The company’s agreed to pay $35,000 and install new pollution control equipment. This did little to resolve the problem because in 1983 the pollution equipment had still not been installed at RSR Corp. Pressure from the community on government agencies was beginning to rise. A citizens group appointed by the Dallas City Council, The Dallas Alliance Environmental Task Force has this to say in a 1983 study

“We believe the city had missed many opportunities to serve and protect the community at large and two neighborhoods in particular in relation to the lead problem we now address. It is clear that the State and Federal governments have also failed in their opportunity to regulate and industry of this type with regard to the general welfare of citizens.”

Before that in 1981 public concern and pressure raised after the West Dallas Boys Club had to suspend outside activity after one soil test showed the soil contained 36 times the level considered dangerous for children. The Club was later forced to close in 1983 due to high lead levels related to the years of operations of the RSR secondary lead smelter operation. After lengthy test and lawsuits and delayed clean up action, partially government agencies fault, RSR Corp. was ordered by the Dallas Board of Adjusters to close the West Dallas facility. In the summer of 1985 an out-of-court settlement was reached between RSR Corp. and Fred Baron who represented 370 children and 40 property owners who were all affected by the lead emitted from RSR. The settlement was for 20 million dollars. However with this settlement the land that the old RSR Corp facility used to sit on still contained large amounts of lead contamination dangerous to all ages of people. On May 1993 a proposal of the RSR Corp. site in West Dallas was sent to the National Priorities List, also named a Superfund site President Clinton’s Administration then brought more publicity to the issue when in November 1993 an article written in The Progressive had this to say

“West Dallas residents celebrated when the Clinton Administration declared last May that they live in the largest lead-contaminated Superfund site in the United States. Portions of one of the nation's biggest housing projects and five schools, all located within five square miles of a now-defunct lead smelter, are slated for cleanup (although Federal Environmental Protection Agency records indicate as much as sixteen square miles of West Dallas are contaminated)."

For the residents who had been pushing for years and decades to solve the problem could lay their case to rest on September 28, 1994 when the EPA signed Preliminary Close Out Report for the RSR Corp. Superfund site stating all clean up for all the units had been completed. The EPA then signed a Ready For Reuse document in May 2005 declaring the site ready for reuse or redevelopment The EPA reported that the clean up resulted in direct lower lead blood leaves of children. The community also benefited by having 400 properties 300 acres (1.2 km2) of commercial property eliminated of contamination.