TCEQ REJECTS APPLICATION FOR LANDFILL PERMIT IN HEMPSTEAD

  

The Texas Commission on Environmental Quality says local ordinances in Hempstead prohibit the construction of a proposed landfill.  

A new landfill application was filed in June for a site on Highway 6, one mile north of the City of Hempstead. This comes after a legal battle over a landfill proposed by the same company spanned years, seemingly ending in February of 2015.

Director of TCEQ Waste Permits Division, Earl Lott, said in a letter to Green Group Holdings that the TCEQ “may not grant” Pintail’s application since the City of Hempstead and Waller County had adopted ordinances prohibiting landfills in the proposed location prior to the date of the application.

The proposed landfill has drawn opposition from the organization Citizens Against Landfill in Hempstead. The organization says the latest development does not necessarily mean the fight is over because “Pintail has made legal arguments to the TCEQ in its second application that question the validity of these ordinances for a variety of inventive reasons.”