Superfund Smelter Site Smells of Success
The Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act – otherwise known as CERCLA or Superfund – provides a Federal "Superfund" to clean up uncontrolled or abandoned hazardous-waste sites as well as accidents, spills, and other emergency releases of pollutants and contaminants into the environment. West Dallas used to be home to just such a site.
The RSR Corporation Superfund site operated a lead smelter on site for fifty years from 1934 to 1984. There were also landfills located on the 13.6 square mile plot of land. It was purchased by RSR Corporation in 1971 and become a Superfund site listed on the National Priority List in 1995. It should be noted that RSR Corporation did assist in the cleanup, which has for the most part, been largely successful.
The primary focus of the original cleanup began after DHA established a permanent presence on site in 1993. The original focus of the cleanup was the areas including the many landfills and the lead smelting facility. Excavations were commonplace in order to remove the soil contaminated with lead. The excavations were then refilled and native vegetation planted to further advance the cleanup operations.
Additional efforts were then started including the demolition of old buildings on the site, the removal of both waste and debris, and ultimately focusing on solutions for the surrounding area. Land use restrictions were put into place, but ultimately, the land was deemed to be safe enough to begin the rebuilding process.
Two Habitat For Humanity Communities were built on the site, ensuring that affordable housing remains available for the many working class residents of West Dallas. Between 1991 and 1994 the Dallas Housing Authority or DHA, in cooperation with the Environmental Protection Agency or EPA, cleaned up more than four hundred properties and began issuing the necessary permits to develop the land.
There are now two schools including both a primary and secondary school. There are churches and a YMCA and a 7-11 where people can get what they need to enjoy the local parks. As of December of last year as the 2020 results are the latest available, the Superfund Site in West Dallas had recorded a total of sixty-eight businesses on site, employing some nine hundred and seventeen people. The estimated annual sales revenue generated on the site was $75,752,841 on the site.
One of the many functions of the West Dallas Neighborhood Coalition is to ensure that no such Superfund sites are necessary in the West Dallas area in the future. However, there are certainly a great many lessons to be learned from the cleanup operations and the redevelopment of the land that was cleaned up here.
The Dallas Housing Authority was recognized alongside of private businesses for the success of the cleanup that took place in West Dallas. There were retail and other commercial outlets that created jobs, There was an inclusion of parks and family-friendly venues. There were a sufficient number of affordable housing units included to help ensure that families who have lived in West Dallas for generations will have housing and other opportunities available for their children as they grow.