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Kaufman may close slaughterhouse
Dallas Crown lawyer says horse plant would take legal action
08:27 PM CDT on Tuesday, August 16, 2005
By JIM GETZ / The Dallas Morning News
KAUFMAN – The Dallas Crown horse-slaughtering plant, already the
target of opponents ranging from its neighbors to Congress, now faces action by a city board that could shut the facility down.
City Council members voted unanimously Monday to turn over to the city's Zoning Board of Adjustments the question of whether the plant
has violated city nuisance laws. If that panel rules that is the case, it could order the plant closed.
"I think the community is asking that we not play footsie," council
member Paula Hagler Wampler said, referring to neighbors' complaints, "and if this is the first council that can do it, so be
it."
If the Board of Adjustments votes at its Sept. 27 meeting to shutter
the plant, Dallas Crown attorney Mark Calabria said Monday, there would probably be a legal action filed to oppose the closing.
Mr. Calabria did just that a year ago, when the city shut off the plant's sewer service after it had
repeatedly overloaded the city's wastewater system. District Judge Erleigh Norville ruled that the
plant should continue to operate and ordered both sides into mediation over wastewater issues. Since then, testing has resumed
and the two sides are edging toward a new sewer permit.
Mr. Calabria also pointed out that an inspection by the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality found no violations in July, and
that the U.S. Department of Agriculture has an inspector on site
during business hours.
"I think we could get it all worked out in mediation," Mr. Calabria
said. "I think these are problems that can be solved. It's nothing
that's not fixable. It's a never-ending stream of complaints, and it
seems to come from the same small group."
But City Manager Curtis Snow told the council Monday that the wastewater violations were only one nuisance they could use to
justify referral to the Board of Adjustments.
Other allegations include bad odors, uncovered containers of byproducts outside the plant, storage of livestock
without sufficient space, trucks driving in the city uncovered and at times
dripping liquids, and a general loss in the quality of life in the
neighborhood. An investigation by Kaufman police in July and early
August found all to be true except the allegations about the trucks.
"The facts of the matter are that even though Dallas Crown does everything it can to protect the food processing for human
consumption, the company is less diligent about ancillary processes
for the by-products," Mr. Snow wrote in a report. "What the neighbors are complaining about is Dallas Crown's handling of those
parts of the animals that are not for consumption."
Robert Eldridge, who has argued that his mostly poor, black neighborhood has been a victim of environmental racism because of
the plant, said Tuesday, "It's a good start. ... Our neighborhood
was very appreciative of their actions. But we're not going to stop.
Next we're going to start working on the people in Washington, so when it goes away, it goes away for good."
There are two tracks about to proceed in Congress against horse slaughtering. The first began this summer, when the U.S. House
overwhelmingly approved an amendment to the annual spending bill for
the Agriculture Department to bar money from being spent to inspect
horse-slaughtering operations. It will probably be introduced in the
Senate after Congress returns from recess Sept. 6. But those spending measures would result in only a one-year ban. A
permanent ban might be introduced in both chambers, also after Sept. 6.
E-mail jgetz@dallasnews.com
http://www.dallasnews.com/s/dws/news/localnews/stories/081705dnmethorse.1234a6c5.html
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