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West Dallas Fears GAF Shingle Plant Found a Workaround for Federal Emissions Oversight

The Environmental Protection Agency recently objected to the way the West Dallas shingle manufacturer recorded its emissions totals. But the community suspects the plant found a way to avoid federal oversight.
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Courtesy Singleton United/Unidos

The Texas Commission on Environmental Quality this month quietly approved a new air quality permit that will no longer require federal oversight of emissions of the GAF shingle manufacturing plant in West Dallas.

In June 2021, more than 120 community members delivered public comment that alleged the plant’s pollutants had caused respiratory and other health problems among the disproportionately Latino neighbors who lived near it. They believed the plant’s existence violated the federal Clean Air Act of 1990. State Rep. Jasmine Crockett, D-Dallas, helped those community organizers secure a hearing that challenged the renewal of the company’s permit to operate, which federal law requires state environmental agencies to monitor.The manufacturer has operated on Singleton Boulevard since 1946.

Those speakers successfully lobbied the TCEQ to increase the frequency of emissions monitoring from once every three months to once a week. But that testing isn’t necessary if the state deems that GAF’s emissions are below federal requirements. Some now question whether GAF’s successful revision to its state permit was designed to avoid the more rigorous requests the Environmental Protection Agency would have ordered under what is known as a Title V permit.

Janie Cisneros, the spokesperson for the Singleton United/Unidos group that has pushed for GAF to leave the community, was unaware that a new permit had been issued. Cisneros and her neighbors began demanding GAF’s exit earlier this year, saying the emissions from the factory have caused a variety of health problems, including an increased incidence of asthma.

“Wow. I mean, just…wow. Oh my God,” she said on Tuesday afternoon. “How does this happen?”

A paper trail from the TCEQ provides a timeline. In August, the original federal permit was approved by the state and sent to the EPA for review. The feds objected to the state’s decision and requested additional oversight for emissions reporting, alleging GAF had not accurately tracked its pollutants. The EPA gave the company 90 days to respond. Instead, GAF filed a revision to its state air quality permit on September 1, which the TCEQ approved on September 13 without notifying the public.

The new permit will not require EPA approval or review since it is a state permit, not federal. In a technical review of the permit revision, the company cites how it decommissioned a manufacturing line in 2017 and dropped its rate of emissions below what its previous Title V federal permit required.

GAF declined to make officials available for comment on Tuesday and instead sent D a prepared statement. It read that “GAF voluntarily applied for and was granted a state air permit from the TCEQ that reduces its sulfur dioxide emission limits by 40 percent. With its amended state permit, GAF no longer requires a federal Title V air permit.”

The permit change also says that the plant’s sulfur dioxide emissions were permitted at a rate that was “overly conservative” in measuring how often emissions were diverted to a boiler stack, instead of through a thermal oxidizer. The latter controls emissions from asphalt blowing operations, reducing the amount of sulfur dioxide that is sent into the air. But a 2020 inventory of local polluters conducted by Paul Quinn College found that GAF was the highest emitter of sulfur dioxide in the city of Dallas.

A stack is equipment, similar to a chimney, that is designed to push polluted air—emissions—out of a factory at a higher elevation. The EPA objected to the factory’s permit because it hadn’t recorded a stack test in more than a decade.

The last reported emissions test from its stacks was in 2008, which means that the data used for its successful September 1 permit revision is 14 years old. The technical report says that the company “will perform an official stack test,” to demonstrate that it is complying with its permit. (The company said Tuesday it recently completed that test, but declined to provide corresponding data.)

“As required by the amended permit application, GAF has conducted an official stack test, the results of which are still pending. We are confident the results will confirm the substantial emissions reduction,” read the company’s statement, which also noted that it had taken other unspecified steps to further reduce emissions.

Kathryn Bazan, the chair of the city of Dallas’ environmental commission, says she has been working with the West Dallas community to help explain the state and federal permitting process. She says the state permit revision only enforces the emission reduction in one form: sulfur dioxide. It doesn’t require any reductions in other pollutants or particulate matter.

“The TCEQ’s Point Source Emissions Inventory database shows that even with the reduction, GAF will keep the title of highest sulfur dioxide polluter in all of Dallas County that it has held for many years,” she said.
Bazan, a former employee of the TCEQ, also pointed to a recent enforcement action initiated by the state agency against the company.

According to TCEQ documentation, GAF had previously failed to comply with the terms of its Title V permit. The state found that the company failed to report more than 50 deviations from what its permit allows during the first half of 2021 alone. The state found the company committed a Category A violation, which is the most serious category in the agency’s enforcement process. The state’s response was prompted by a complaint filed by the city of Dallas’ Local Air Program in May. D requested information regarding the fines that could be assessed by the TCEQ, but the agency has not responded.

West Dallas 1, a coalition of several community groups, said in a statement that it felt the permit revision was a way for the company to avoid the EPA’s objections to its emissions and its reporting. When GAF’s parent company entered into discussions with West Dallas 1 about the plant’s eventual departure, the neighborhood group said it was not told of a pending enforcement action.

“This permit violation demonstrates the concerns that West Dallas residents have expressed about GAF Materials’ ability to comply with applicable environmental regulations,” West Dallas 1’s statement reads.”GAF Materials was notified of the enforcement action just weeks before they invited West Dallas community leaders to a meeting, where GAF proposed a legally binding agreement between themselves and the community to shut down the facility. GAF’s leadership failed to disclose it during those discussions.”

GAF said the action was “related to our late filing of a standard report,” calling the issue an “administrative error, which we corrected and self-reported. There are no allegations of excess emissions.”

After stopping negotiations with the community, GAF filed a zoning change with the city that would see its exit by no earlier than 2029. It plans to ask the Dallas City Council for permission to rezone the 26.5-acre tract from its current industrial use to allow for high-density retail, office space, hotels, or multifamily residential apartments.

However, GAF is requesting a special use permit to continue operating as it winds down operations. That permit would expire on Dec. 31, 2029, and when it does, no further industrial uses would be allowed within the development boundaries.

Raul Reyes, the president of West Dallas 1, says the lack of evidence that GAF has meaningfully reduced emissions, along with its pending enforcement action, should give the city pause before it agrees to any of the company’s zoning change requests.

“Any municipal zoning request that does not include clear evidence that the facility’s actual emissions have been and will continue to be significantly reduced until GAF Materials ceases operations in West Dallas will not have our support,” he added.

“We’re not just going to take their word for it,” Cisneros said in agreement.

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Bethany Erickson

Bethany Erickson

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Bethany Erickson is the senior digital editor for D Magazine. She's written about real estate, education policy, the stock market, and crime throughout her career, and sometimes all at the same time. She hates lima beans and 5 a.m. and takes SAT practice tests for fun.

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