Lead-contaminated soil lurked below Dallas’ ‘Shingle Mountain’ — and now another cleanup begins

By Nathan Collins

On August 28, 2023

Just two years after the removal of a 70,000-ton pile of roofing materials — that came to be known as ‘Shingle Mountain” — the City of Dallas is starting another cleanup project at the same site.

But the project that started on Monday morning has nothing to do with shingles, according to city officials.

The city will remove 40,000 cubic yards of soil from the site that will be taken to the McCommas Bluff Landfill. Around 1,500 cubic yards of that soil is contaminated with lead — and the rest is made up of contaminated “fill.”

“In the 1970s and 80s, the previous owner brought in lead contaminated fill and debris to the property,” Office of Environmental Quality and Sustainability Director Carols Evans said. “One the reasons why we think that occurred was to potentially raise the property out of the floodplain.”

Marsha Jackson is a resident living near the facility. Prior to its removal in 2021, Jackson could see “Shingle Mountain” from her backyard. She says her health has been impacted by the contamination.

“If you see tears running down my eyes, it’s because you guys don’t know what I’ve gone through and what my community has gone through because of Shingle Mountain,”
Jackson said.

Jackson says she is hopeful for the full remediation of the site.

In 2018 the city sued the owners of the facility over code violations related to the tons of material dumped at the site. The removal of those materials is complete — but city officials say the lead contamination was found in 2021 when the city took over the property.

Kenneth Tramm is one of the environmental consultants overseeing the Blue Star project. He says the contamination was found during a “broad spectrum” analysis of the site.

“We are standing on top of fill that was just brought in to raise the elevation of the property,” Tamm said. “The majority of fill is bricks and concrete…but in between that there is some fill and it’s actually a very sandy material.”

City officials did not comment on any plans for future use of the site. Mayor Pro Tem Tennell Atkins, who represents District 8 where the site is located, says the main goal is to clean up the site.

“Right now, we are going to bring it up to residential standards,” Atkins said. “Let’s get to residential standards first, then we will figure out what we will do with the property and what is the best use for the community.”

“Residential standards” refers to the strictest cleanup requirements.

Officials say they will use clean soil brought in from the backside of the McCommas Bluff property “away from the landfill” to replace what is being removed from the site.

Air monitors have been set up near the facility and city officials say they will install more within the facility to monitor air quality throughout the removal process.

The cleanup should be complete at the end of October and could cost millions, according to Atkins.

“We’ve already spent a million and a half already just to remove the shingles,” Atkins said. “We’re going to spend another million and a half to remove the debris here and bring dirt back here.”

Jackson says right now, she is just happy to see the remediation process moving along.

“We worried if the remediation was going to happen, but it did happen and were at this point now,” Jackson said. “We did not think we would see that day, but its here now.”

This piece was republished from KERA News.