A Final Judgment has been reached in the legal challenge against Ortiz Auto Parts located at 8410 Airline Drive. The legal action resulted from numerous complaints involving the operation of the automotive salvage yard that resulted in environmental investigators finding ongoing violations of the state environmental protection laws. The defendants will close the auto salvage yard by February 1 and may not sublet any part of the property for use as an auto salvage yard in the future.
I am pleased that the county took legal action against this business that has been violating our laws for many years. For too long we have witnessed junkyards illegally dumping in our neighborhoods without suffering any consequences. Finally we will start to see these eyesores cleaned up and the contamination removed, said Rep. Kevin Bailey. I will be happy to give the county attorney a list of about 50 other junkyards that need to be submitted to a similar level of scrutiny and if found to be polluting our ground water prosecuted.
Bailey passed legislation last year that provides the county with a stronger mechanism for enforcing existing state laws. County governments have the authority to regulate automotive salvage yards and junkyards in its unincorporated areas, but the annual permit fee of $25 was insufficient to defray the cost of regulation. Harris County did not have the resources to exclusively devote to regulating them. The Bailey law increased the annual fee to $500 in order to provide sufficient funding for a dedicated workforce to police the businesses.
According to the final judgment, soil at the junkyard was visibly contaminated with petroleum products. Test results indicated that motor oil was most likely the cause of the contamination. Storm water runoff from the property exceeded state guidelines of acceptable levels for petroleum products, aluminum, lead and suspended solids. According to the agreement with the county, the owner of the property and the owner of the junkyard are required to remove all contaminated soil and dispose of it at a legally authorized site. The defendants will have to provide to Harris County copies of all disposal receipts. Follow up testing will be done to ensure that all contaminated soil has been removed. In addition, more than $42,000 in civil penalties will have to be paid.
I have been working closely with Harris County, East Aldine Management
District and the Airline Improvement District to implement a pilot project to gather sufficient data to document the severity of the problems being caused by rogue junkyards, said Bailey.
County officials want a pilot project to determine whether a full regulatory program is needed. When junkyards that are polluting our waterways are locating within a few feet of homes with backyard water wells that are 25 -50 feet deep, the need for stricter enforcement of the law should not be questioned. The potential of groundwater contamination at any of these locations is significant. The need for regulation is obvious. The environmental impact to the health of area residents should be their primary concern.
The Bellmar Civic Club had previously sued Ortiz Auto Parts. The lawsuit that was initially filed in April 2004 resulted in a judgment against the junkyard for operating within 300 feet of existing residential property. A final judgment in the case was issued in September 2005 and gave the business 90 days to remove any operation within 300 feet of the homes, but residents say the judgment was ignored.
