Harris County plans to sue the owners of a landfill along Tanner Road near Spring Branch, alleging ongoing violations tied to methane and groundwater contamination at a site the surrounding Carverdale neighborhood has fought for years to address.
Recently-appointed County Attorney Abbie Kamin announced the plan at a Monday evening community meeting focused on the Hawthorn Park Landfill, owned by USA Waste of Texas Landfills, a subsidiary of Waste Management.
The county’s notice of intent to sue alleges the site “continues to exhibit conditions that are not associated with a properly operating Type IV facility, including methane generated above the regulatory limit at the property boundary and elevated metals and chemicals in groundwater.”
Waste Management’s public affairs director, Lisa Doughty, said the landfill “is engineered with environmental protection systems specified by government regulations” and “has provided compliant and responsible disposal services for communities, businesses and industries serving Harris County” for decades.
The current lawsuit follows a multi-year fight over a proposed expansion.
Waste Management filed a permit amendment in February 2021 seeking to grow the landfill’s disposal footprint by roughly 40 acres and raise its elevation limits, changes the company said would extend the site’s operating life by about 46 years.
The Texas Commission on Environmental Quality held public meetings on the request in 2022, and more than 100 people turned out to oppose it. By February 2023, then-County Attorney Christian Menefee had escalated the fight by announcing legal action against TCEQ itself, saying his office was arguing the agency “shouldn’t be able to expand because of the potential harms to folks who live nearby in the communities.”
USA Waste withdrew its expansion application in January 2024 amid the contested case hearing, an outcome Lone Star Legal Aid, which represented several Carverdale residents in the proceeding, called a direct result of “determined advocacy efforts” by the county, community groups and residents.
Harris County Precinct 3 Commissioner Tom Ramsey was also among the officials thanked publicly for supporting the community, alongside Mayor Whitmire and City Council Member Amy Peck. Ramsey, a Republican first elected to Commissioners Court in 2020, only became the commissioner responsible for the Carverdale area after a 2022 county redistricting map swapped large portions of Precinct 3 and Precinct 4’s territory, shifting the neighborhood into his jurisdiction. Ramsey has otherwise served as the lone Republican on the five-member Commissioners Court in recent years and has frequently voted against the Democratic majority on spending and policy matters.
Kamin told Monday’s crowd that the landfill’s legal status now complicates efforts to shut it down permanently. Even though Waste Management has made little use of the site since withdrawing its expansion bid, the landfill remains classified as active. “That’s part of the problem,” Kamin said, adding that the company appears to be doing just enough to keep the site active, which prevents the county from treating it as legally closed.
A closed designation would open the door to capping, testing and remediation. As long as it stays active, Waste Management could also reapply with TCEQ for another expansion permit at any time.
Residents at the meeting raised ongoing concerns about flooding and health. Neighbors say floodwater already flows from the landfill property onto nearby homes. Bishop Calvin Smith told Kamin and Peck that health problems are common in the area. “Everybody has a loved one who’s dealing with cancer,” Smith said, asking whether contamination in the water or soil was contributing to illness in the neighborhood.
Harris County sent its formal notice of intent to sue in June.
Federal law requires the county to wait 90 days from that notice before filing a complaint. Once that window closes, the county attorney’s office plans to file suit under the federal Resource Conservation and Recovery Act, the law governing solid waste handling and disposal, seeking the landfill’s permanent closure, mandated safety measures, and testing to determine whether contamination on site is affecting nearby residents.
