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Citizens hope answers to health concerns go beyond planning

Matt Dotray A-J Media
The Lubbock City Council on Thursday heard from residents concerned about air quality. (Matt Dotray/AJ Media)

Headaches, coughing, asthma attacks and nausea — all symptoms some Lubbock citizens told city leaders they experience because of where they live.

Or better said, what they live near.

What experts call environmental inequality seen in Lubbock is a result of racial segregation enforced decades ago, but the impacts are still being felt. Residents in north and east Lubbock describe air quality in a way that's unfamiliar to residents in other parts of the city. Residents whose homes are near industrial facilities say they're concerned it's taking a toll on their health.

As the Lubbock City Council moves forward on the city's first comprehensive plan in more than three decades, this issue has been brought to the forefront.

"Our youth are sick, our elderly are sick," said Felecisima Betts. "We want you to pay attention to what's going on — when you come out onto your yard and you have residue on your car and your yard. If you have it there then you have it in your lungs."

Residents from East Lubbock describe unexpected asthma attacks, smoking-related illnesses despite having never smoked, and a smell they thought was normal growing up until they went to a different part of town.

"We need somebody to come in and help us," said Deborah Ward, after describing the asthma attacks she and her neighbors experience. "This has been going on 40 years, and our kids are not wanting to stay over here... If you had your grandchildren breathing this, how would you feel?"

Residents in these communities believe these health effects are the result of toxic chemicals being released in their neighborhoods from industry and city facilities, and are wanting the city to study the possibility and step in to limit emissions.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency tracks the management of toxic chemicals that could pose a threat to human health, and the EPA reports that at least 15 businesses in Lubbock could emit such chemicals. All but two of those businesses are located in North and East Lubbock, and the two that aren’t are located near those areas just outside city limits.

This is not by accident.

These businesses are concentrated in the city's industrial zoning locations located primarily in Lubbock's high African-American and Hispanic populated communities.

Here's what the City Plan of Lubbock formulated in 1943 said of the city's industrial zoning location: "Immediately beyond this industrial area the attendant development is principally for Negro and Mexican families, This can not be considered as desirable potential property for white residential development excepting probably the area on the heights of the East of the Mackenzie State Park."

This trend then continued in the city's 1959 plan when the city admitted the plants in industrial areas "are known to emit smoke, dust, odor, or noise, or are hazardous by nature" while at the same time expanding the industrial zoning, mostly in East Lubbock, especially around the Chatman Hill area.

Jason Post, an assistant professor of geographic information technology at Navajo Technical University, studied the impact from this for his master's thesis paper at Texas Tech. He published the report titled "Spatial Environmental Inequality in Lubbock, Texas" that says Lubbock's African-American and Hispanic communities have higher instances of chemical exposure.

Although it hasn't been looked at closely, Post would expect residents in these areas to have symptoms related to this exposure. His research said neighborhoods with a high density black population are located on average 568 meters closer to a toxic-waste releasing facility.

"In the 1940's, when it was zoned industrial as a barrier, the stuff we see today is an artifact of that — it's called lagged causation," said Post. "The people were there, then it was zoned industrial, and even today we still have toxic releases. There's an injustice still today because of historic processes."

Post said what's frustrating is how little is talked about it — he said the homeowners were there first, then industry came. He said close to 40 percent of homes in black communities even in the 1960's didn't have running water, and major renewal projects still haven't come to fruition.

According to the information these businesses report to the Environmental Protection Agency, hexane is the largest chemical being released (over 140,000 pounds in 2012), which can cause headache, nausea, vomiting, respiratory distress and nerve damage.

"Nobody talks about the tarnished past," said Post. "Look at the existing land use that dates back to the 1940's, we still see heavy industrial and heavy commercial on the east side that separates the area from the rest of the city."

If industrial zoning is further expanded in this area, which the plan up for discussion does now, Post believes it'll further the barrier and drive black communities further east.

The city is near completion on its most recent comprehensive plan — its first in over 30 years. Members of the North and East Lubbock community have been most involved in this process, and have spoken at many of the committee meetings as Plan Lubbock 2040 as it's been called was crafted. On Thursday, when the plan first reached the Lubbock City Council for approval, there were about two hours of public hearings, mostly about these concerns with toxic releases.

Mayor Dan Pope and Councilwoman Latrelle Joy asked rhetorically why they're just hearing about these concerns now. Pope gave indication that the city will look into these concerns, and directed the city manager to reach out to the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality about studying the air quality.

Pope said it doesn't take a comprehensive plan to look into this concern.

Adam Pirtle is with the group Texas Housers, and has been working with the local neighborhood associations to get their concerns addressed in this comprehensive plan. Besides these industrial locations, Pirtle along with some Lubbock residents have been advocating for better access to public transportation across the entire city.

There's an entire section in the plan dedicated to the needs of north and east Lubbock. Among the recommended strategies, it suggests the city work with state and federal entities to identify and mitigate hazardous sites, disallow expansion of heavy commercial or industrial uses and improve perception and promote transparency regarding soil and air testing.

The chairman of the committee said these were added to the plan as a result of the public comments heard earlier by the committee.

Pirtle, though, said he wishes to see more accountability included in the plan to make sure this follows through. These issues are not part of the five key recommendations, and Pirtle said without urgency or fiscal recommendations attached with it, he fears nothing will be done.

"We know this is an issue. This was a deliberate choice made by the city in the past, and now we're at a juncture where we have the opportunity to change it," Pirtle said. "Even just a focus on having improvements from industry, that's not a big leap... I don't think you can be a human being and listen to all these stories and not do anything about it."

Members of the council responded to the public comments prior to the first vote. There was no indication the zoning map will change. Industrial zoning will still be allowed in these parts of the city, but the council said things will be done about studying the air quality.

The council unanimously approved the comprehensive plan on first reading without any changes from what was presented by the committee. The second and final vote is set for Dec. 17.

Council members Shelia Patterson Harris and Juan Chadis, who represent north and east Lubbock, reiterated that the city will follow through with the recommendations suggested for north and east Lubbock.

"Now that we've heard from you, and I don't want to speak for everyone on the dais here, but I feel pretty certain that we're gong to move forward with this," Chadis said at the meeting. "In 12 months, hopefully we won't be having this same discussion. Hopefully the discussion will be what has happened, the good things that have happened, because of this plan we've got."

It was also said several times at the meeting that this is a living document. Pope said he already scheduled a date to review the document a year from this month.

Patterson Harris said she's thankful the comprehensive plan got the ball rolling on a number of issues. She said even the best plan is worthless unless what's in it is acted upon, adding she wants to see some recommendations begin right away.

There's been written plans before for redeveloping and improving parts of the city that aren't experiencing the growth trends felt elsewhere. The 2004 North & East Lubbock Master Development Plan is often referenced as a plan that was never followed through with. For these reasons, Pirtle said it's no wonder some citizens don't believe a change is coming.