Dallas is as soon as once more suing to attempt to drive the U.S. Navy to complete cleansing up a contaminated former naval airfield after the navy department has blown its earlier deadline to clear the location by seven years.
Dallas is searching for damages and a agency timeline in a lawsuit filed this month saying the Navy has breached the phrases of a 2002 authorized settlement settlement to have the soil and groundwater at Hensley Area clear by 2017. Town says its plans to redevelop the 738-acre property that borders Mountain Creek Lake in southwestern Dallas are in limbo indefinitely because the cleanup effort drags on with no obvious end line and because the contamination continues to decrease the land’s market worth.
Town says the Navy has given no definitive timetable on when the location will likely be away from contaminants, comparable to pre- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, also referred to as PFAS. The compounds might be hazardous to people and research have proven that they may result in elevated dangers of most cancers, liver injury, being pregnant issues, start defects and different well being results, in response to the Facilities for Illness Management and Prevention.
“The USA has didn’t maintain a number of binding guarantees to remediate the numerous environmental contamination brought on by its decades-long use of the Hensley Area website,” town mentioned in an Aug. 2 criticism filed with the U.S. Court docket of Federal Claims. “Because of this, Dallas can’t implement its grasp plan that contemplates the reuse and redevelopment of the Hensley Area website right into a vibrant mixed-use group for greater than 12,000 residents and 12,000 jobs.”
The 2002 settlement settlement stemmed from a lawsuit town filed the 12 months earlier than over the property’s environmental issues following many years of navy use. Metropolis officers mentioned final December that the Navy’s cleanup prices had been at $92.4 million, however Hensley Area wasn’t near getting approval from state and federal environmental regulators that the circumstances would meet residential requirements.
Town mentioned within the criticism that so long as the poisonous chemical substances stay on the website, Dallas’ property rights are being infringed upon.
“By inflicting and failing to remediate important environmental contamination, the USA has disadvantaged Dallas of the economically viable or helpful use of the Hensley Area website, which constitutes a taking by the USA of the property,” the criticism mentioned.
Navy spokesman Invoice Franklin mentioned the navy department declined to touch upon questions from The Dallas Morning News, together with on the present standing of the cleanup, citing the continuing litigation. Court docket information present a authorized response has not but been filed within the case, and the deadline to submit one is Oct. 3.
Town purchased the Hensley Area website within the late Twenties and leased it to the U.S. Army to coach reserve pilots. A naval reserve air station was inbuilt 1941, administration of the sphere was transferred to the Navy in 1949, and the air station remained operational till it closed in 1999.
Components of Hensley Area at the moment are used for a random assortment of metropolis storage, together with outdated police squad vehicles and Accomplice-era monuments.
The Navy agreed in a 2002 courtroom settlement with Dallas to pay town greater than $18 million and clear up the location by 2017. Remediation efforts to wash the soil have concluded and been permitted by the Texas Fee on Environmental High quality, in response to town final 12 months. However groundwater contamination nonetheless hasn’t been absolutely addressed.
The Metropolis Council final December permitted a 20-year plan estimated to price round $390 million to show Hensley Area into a brand new walkable group with greater than 6,800 new properties, over 12,000 jobs, new parks and waterfront trails, a marina, a potential movie studio and different facilities.
Plane upkeep hangars constructed within the Forties and Seventies, navy officers’ homes from the Thirties and a 1-acre cemetery that has been round for the reason that mid-1800s are historic websites at Hensley Area there that might be preserved or repurposed, in response to the grasp plan.
In line with the newest lawsuit, the Navy requested town to create the redevelopment plan in January 2019 to assist information the remediation work.
Metropolis Supervisor T.C. Broadnax mentioned Dallas plans to maintain working with the Navy to wash the location because the authorized dispute continues.
“We respect the entire U.S. Navy’s efforts to remediate the location for the previous 20 years,” Broadnax mentioned in a press release. “We’re assured that we will attain an settlement on the ultimate part of the undertaking that ensures Hensley Area might be safely developed right into a premier group providing blended revenue housing, recreation, industrial house, and extra.”
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