January 11, 2024 -- Mayor John Whitmire issued the following statement this afternoon after the announcement that a permit request to expand the Hawthorn Park Landfill has been dropped.
"Today's news that USA Waste of Texas Landfills, Inc. has withdrawn its application to expand the Hawthorn Park Landfill is a victory for one of our most vulnerable neighborhoods.
As a State Senator in 2022, I proudly stood with the residents and business owners in Carverdale to object to the permit application because they were concerned about potential environmental and health issues, increased truck traffic, and flooding that the proposed expansion would have created.
I wrote to the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality to request a public meeting and joined community members at the landfill to protest all attempts to expand the landfill. Houston City Council Member Amy Peck also advocated on behalf of Carverdale residents at the time, and I thank her for her leadership and commitment to stopping the landfill expansion.
As Houston's Mayor, I promise to continue fighting for Houstonians whenever their quality of life is threatened. I look forward to working with the residents of Carverdale and other citizens to speak up about environmental justice issues that threaten our hardworking families. Everyone deserves a safe and healthy place to live."