I have emailed all my Senators, Representatives, TCEQ, City of Midlothian, TDHS, & companies my website.  To this date I have not had a ONE of them contact me regarding my concerns of the air quality & health problems that exist in Midlothian.

The problem is that all of this is legal for the cement & steel plants.  They have been permit by our government to emit all of this.   Of all the studies that have been done they still believe it is safe because the company said so.   Of all the people and animals that suffer from some health problem since moving to Midlothian is over-looked.  If you take the emissions from each of these plants and put it together, what do you get?  This is completely ignored when a company goes for a permit.  Basically now these companies have the rules set so that they do not have to notify the public anymore.  If they do they place an ad in a newspaper that is in a different cities paper, NOT our local paper so that the residents know what is happening.

There are 2 TCEQ Monitors located near TXI.  They are CAM52 & CAM 94.  Click on the link for Monthly Summary Report.  There are no monitors located by Holcim or North Texas.   As you can see the highest amounts are during the evenings when you are sleeping.  Now you know why some mornings you feel like crap!!!  YES, this is all legal.  What our government does is an average for 24 hours.  So pollute all you what in the evening and than during the day when the TCEQ is open and everyone can see what is being emitted out of the stack you just quit.
 
TCEQ's Procedures for odors:
Sulfur dioxide odor nuisance if moderate intensity odors are documented to occur for at least one hour per day on 7 consecutive days or for at least 4 hours per week for 4 consecutive weeks. 
Procedures for an unpleasant odor of moderate intensity would need to occur daily for at least 1 hour, weekly for at least 4 hours at a time or monthly for more than 12 hours at a time to be considered a nuisance.
An unpleasant odor of strong intensity would need to occur daily for at least 10 minutes, weekly for at least 1 hour, monthly for at least 4 hours and quarterly for at least 12 hours.
BY THIS TIME WE COULD ALL BE DEAD !!!! So what do these companies do. They do it for 1 day or 1 hour less than the law. They are legal. 
They can have excess emissions and say that it is happening during Start-up or Shut-down under the Portland Cement Rules set by the EPA.
They are required to look at the baghouse stack ONLY once in a 24 hour period.  So say that they looked at it at 1:00 pm and at 2:00 pm the baghouse bag break.  You may have to breathe all of this for the next 23 hours.  Or if an employee HAPPENS to notice it they are to report it.  Of all the employees at TXI, 3 out of the 3 complaints that I have made no employee seen anything.
 
In July 2005 the citizens of Midlothian petitioned the ATSDR and Texas Dept of State Health Services.  They visited 5 neighborhoods and receive numerous documentation from monitor data and company records.  A report was to be made in Feb. 2006.  It is now June 2007 and still no report.  Almost 2 years since they came here.  They always have a new excuse why it is not out.  They also have stated that their legal department has to approve it.  What are they trying to cover-up?  Are they afraid that if they leave the truth out that this would be disaster to the cement & steel industry.  Are they afraid that this would make the Erin Brockovich movie look like nothing?  Why are they refusing to share the data collected by them with citizens of Midlothian?  They are saying the information they received is confidential.    

In July 2006 over 160 residents protest the permit for TXI to burn tires.  Despite all the concerns the TCEQ granted the permit to TXI based on the figures that TXI gave them.  During the 1st trial burn in 2002 there were problems.  My husband passed away shortly after this TXI trial burn.  There were these horrible odors of tires being burnt.  TXI is one of very few cement kilns to burn liquid hazardous waste with tires.  The problem is that the liquid hazardous waste continues to change, so really you do not know what the tires will be combined with.    Basically industry makes their rules in Texas.  Now that the cement kilns & steel mill are considered recyclers we citizens do not know what is being burnt.   It could be solvents, pesticides, roofing material, tires, medical waste and who knows what.  This is all blended together and than burnt as fuel.   Some of these chemicals do not produce an odor but are in our air.

I have called and documented over 100 complaints from odors to baghouse bags breaking to excess emissions.  I even purchased an infra-red camera to take pictures & videos of what happens in the evenings & weekends when no one is available.  The TCEQ has one mounted on a helicopter but still ignores Midlothian.  The TCEQ contacts the company weeks later and the company tells them nothing happened.  Their records do not show that anything happened.  Than the picture or video appears.  It takes other month or so for the company to come back with some bull crap excuse.  It was the reflection off the parking lot lights, that is just steam, no employee seen anything coming from the baghouse, or the odor did not last long enough to become a nuisance. 

Why not sue these companies?  These companies are like Goliath.  They know that us residents do not have that kind of money.  It would take a large attorney firm with millions to sue?  The State of Texas has laws basically to protect them.   Attorneys have looked at this and said the big problem is getting it into the court system without a judge dismissing it.  If it was any other state it would be no problem. 
   THIS IS WHAT YOU ARE BREATHING WHEN YOU GO TO BED!!!!!!!!!
     
  
                            CHAPARRAL STEEL


                                    TXI  
                                                                                                           

                           CHAPARRAL STEEL


                          BAGHOUSE BAGS BREAKING AT TXI