Statement by Dr. Robert D. Bullard on Hawthorn Park Landfill Scrapping Expansion Plans in Carverdale

Statement by Dr. Robert D. Bullard on Hawthorn Park Landfill Scrapping Expansion Plans in Carverdale

“It’s Time to Bury Environmental Racism in Houston”

January 11, 2024 – The news that USA Waste of Texas Landfills, Inc. has withdrawn its application to expand the Hawthorn Park Landfill expansion is a great environmental justice victory—and a great start on the road to help make 2024 “the year of Justice.” Carverdale residents and their allies fought an uphill battle for years and today they prevailed. The residents have had to suffer the indignities and live with a landfill for some 45 years. The permit expansion, if it had been approved by the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ), would have insanely extended the life of landfill for another 46 years. That’s three times longer than the average 30-year home mortgage—an unfair and unjust burden that would saddle multiple generations of Black and Latino homeowners with a dump and stealing their inheritance and wealth. I applaud the community for saying “No” to being dumped on and disrespected. They fought hard and won a victory not only for Carverdale residents but for other neighborhoods in “no-zoning” Houston that have been singled out for locally unwanted land uses or LULUs. It’s time to bury environmental racism in Houston. To read the testimony Dr. Robert D. Bullard presented in June 2022 at a TCEQ Public Hearing on the Hawthorn Landfill Expansion in Carverdale click HERE.