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Experts say the DOJ investigation is a notable step toward addressing environmental justice on a national level. Last week, the DOJ\u2019s Civil Rights Division <\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span>announced<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/a>\u00a0it will investigate whether the city ignored frequent complaints of illegal dumping from residents in Black and Latino neighborhoods. The investigation stems from a <\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span>complaint<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/a>\u00a0from Lone Star Legal Aid, which it made on behalf of residents in Trinity and Houston Gardens Super Neighborhood region.\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n Houston\u2019s Solid Waste Management Department, police department, Department of Neighborhoods and the city\u2019s 311 service request line are all a part of the investigation, the DOJ said<\/a>.\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n Juan Antonio Sorto, a Houston resident who regularly experiences high volumes of litter on his street, said he routinely\u00a0<\/strong>sees piles of construction waste, old furniture, household trash and, on a recent day, several toilets.\u00a0Neighbors have had to deal with animal carcasses and sometimes even dead bodies, the DOJ alleges.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n Sorto,\u00a0an active member of Houston\u2019s <\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span>Super Neighborhood Council<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/a>, has dealt with illegal dumping since at least 2001, when he moved to his northeast Houston neighborhood adjacent to the Trinity\/Houston Gardens area.\u00a0Other neighbors have described living with the issue for much longer, he said.\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n \u201cElected officials for decades have known about [residents\u2019] concerns as a community. The only difference between now and 30 or 40 years ago is that we have legal representation now,\u201d he said.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n The city of Houston calls the DOJ investigation <\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span>baseless<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/a>, and Mayor Sylvester Turner in a news release last week said the city aggressively responds to dumping issues and has recently ramped up fines for littering and spent millions of dollars to alleviate the situation. The city of Houston has not responded to requests for comment as of press time.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n Soon after the DOJ announcement, Sorto said the city \u201csent every dump truck in the neighborhood to clean up,\u201d an abrupt response he hasn\u2019t seen before. He is skeptical the sudden cleanup of his neighborhood will last.\u00a0\u201cIt\u2019s clean now, but that\u2019s not the solution we\u2019re asking for.\u201d<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n Houston\u2019s issues are also symptomatic of a larger environmental racism picture that won\u2019t be solved in one federal investigation, said Robert Bullard, a longtime environmental justice advocate, a distinguished professor at Texas Southern University and a member of the White House\u2019s <\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span>Environmental Justice Advisory Council<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/a>.\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n Bullard says he\u2019s cautiously optimistic about the DOJ investigation as a \u201cstep in the right direction.\u201d\u00a0Yet he believes the DOJ should widen its scope to also investigate state departments, including the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality, which he said plays \u201ca major role in the way discriminatory environmental decisions are made at the state level.\u201d<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n Even if Houston works hard to clean up overburdened neighborhoods and respond equitably to all citizens\u2019 trash complaints, the city is still unable to intervene in certain other waste-related instances, such as when residents protest landfill expansions, Bullard said.\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n One example is playing out in the Houston neighborhood of Carverdale, where residents \u2014 most of whom are Black or Latino \u2014 are protesting the proposed expansion of WM\u2019s Hawthorne Park Landfill. \u201cThe city of Houston does not control [landfill] permitting or siting of facilities,\u201d he said. \u201cPermitting is with TCEQ, so if a company wants to put in a municipal Subtitle D landfill, Houston has no say,\u201d he said.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n The proposal calls for expanding the landfill perimeter to about\u00a0<\/strong>40 acres and allowing a height of 127 feet, an expansion that could allow it to operate for another 46 years, Houston Public Media <\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span>reported<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/a>. At a recent public hearing, residents said the landfill has negatively affected their health and property values. WM had not responded to requests for comment as of press time.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n TCEQ attorney Anthony Tatu told residents the agency can only consider whether an application meets the necessary technical aspects;\u00a0it doesn\u2019t have the authority to consider community demographics when granting permits, Houston Public Media reported.\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n Bullard said these responses illustrate how little power or voice residents of overburdened communities have when state departments create or enforce laws.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n