Dallas, TX
EPA test fish to see how pollution from Dallas concrete batch plants affects people’s health
Fish Trap Lake, five miles west of downtown Dallas, glowed with sunlight, ducks and geese swam, and a man with a fishing rod cast his line on a warm January morning. On the trail that loops around the 10-acre lake located inside a park, mothers with strollers walked to the sounds of rippling water and birds chirping.
Across the street from the park stands a row of industrial companies, including plants that turn sand, water and cement into concrete to build highways and subdivisions and high-rises in fast-growing Texas.
While fish is in the lake’s name, Janie Cisneros, 41, a mother and digital researcher who grew up nearby, says it’s common knowledge in the area to “catch them, don’t eat them.” Locals believe the lake is polluted from wastewater runoff from the nearby plants.
Cisneros, the director of the neighborhood association Singleton United/Unidos, said many residents who live nearby have long complained about pollution from the plants, and suspect that it’s contributing to health problems ranging from asthma to bronchitis to throat cancer. They also say the thousands of concrete batch plants located across Texas disproportionately impact low-income communities like theirs.
Desiree Rios
/
for The Texas Tribune
West Dallas’ Zip Code 75212, where 27,000 people live, is 68% Hispanic and 25% Black. Cisneros, wearing her signature cherry lipstick and black neighborhood association shirt, said that for decades a relentless stench has infiltrated the homes of residents in her working-class neighborhood.
Residents have long complained to the state’s environmental agency about pollution from the plants and say their concerns have been brushed off. But now their efforts have caught the attention of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.
The agency has found that the air pollution and particulate matter from concrete batch plants can increase the risk of asthma and cardiac arrest if people inhale too much of it.
Now it has launched a pilot project — the first in Texas — that will survey air, water, and soil to determine how the combined pollution from this cluster of industrial sites impacts public health in two predominantly Black and brown Dallas neighborhoods: West Dallas and Joppa in South Dallas.
EPA says the project is expected to be completed by July 2024. The agency’s final report will be shared with the communities, the city of Dallas and the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality, the state agency that regulates batch plants.
But before any of that can happen, the first step was going fishing.
Fish will be tested for heavy metals
By 9:30 a.m. on Tuesday, three EPA scientists, wearing bright orange life vests, grabbed two Home Depot buckets, stuffing them with buoys and fish traps meant to capture predator fish like bass.
They boarded a small beige boat branded with the agency’s logo. When the boat’s motor refused to start, they paddled to the lake’s center.
Using cat food as bait, they cast their nets.
“[These nets] are just a really effective way to try and catch a lot of fish in a short amount of time,” said Rob Cook, an environmental scientist who has worked for the EPA for 12 years.
Desiree Rios
/
for The Texas Tribune
Cook, a 54 year-old who wore rain boots, reflective sunglasses and a straw hat, said the group needs to catch three to five catfish and predator fish like bass, all similar in size, for a reliable testing sample.
Nicholas Scott, 30, an EPA scientist who was on the boat with Cook, says they will filet the fish, freeze the filets and send them to a lab to test the tissue for heavy metals like lead and arsenic. The results from water sampling and the fish tissue analysis will help the EPA determine whether the lake’s water or fish are harmful to human health.
They paddled back to shore, leaving four red buoys floating in the lake, marking their nets’ location. Then they picked up trash around the lake for a couple of hours before rowing back out to retrieve the nets.
Kirk McDonnell, a spokesperson for the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department — which stocks the lake with catfish, bass and other species — said in an email that because the lake is near industrial sites and sometimes receives flood water from the Trinity River, which is under a fish consumption advisory, the department’s Dallas-Fort Worth fisheries division has “speculated that fish contamination could be an issue with the fish currently in the lake.”
West Dallas resident Cynthia Medina, curious about the scientists’ activities, stopped by the lake during her lunch break. The petite 30-year-old said she’s interested in the test results because her husband comes to the lake regularly to fish.
“I tell him: Don’t take [the fish] home, we are not going to eat it. It is not safe,” said Medina, who has lived in the neighborhood her entire life and works at a nonprofit that connects children of color to books and promotes reading.
She pointed to a shopping cart partially submerged near the lake shore. “I don’t know what those fish are eating.”
Scientist hopes study informs policy
Aimee Wilson, an EPA scientist and project manager in a navy striped blouse featuring an embroidered EPA logo she stitched herself, said the agency decided to conduct a cumulative impact assessment in Texas because TCEQ was proposing changes to the state’s concrete batch plant permits, which sets the air pollution standards companies must follow.
Those changes included lowering production limits, reducing dust coming from plants and setting minimum distance requirements from nearby communities, but did not take into account the cumulative pollution created by plants clustered close together, like those near Fish Trap Lake.
For years, environmental advocates have criticized the state for not taking into account the health impacts for people living near multiple concrete batch plants.
In 2021, Harris County attorney and Lone Star Legal Aid, a nonprofit law group, filed civil rights complaintswith the EPA alleging that the TCEQ discriminated against people of color and those with limited English proficiency in the agency’s permitting process to build new concrete batch plants and renew permits for existing ones.
“There hasn’t been a lot of studies on [cumulative impact],” said Wilson, who has worked for the EPA for 14 years. “So we want to see what’s there because we don’t know.”
While TCEQ announced its new requirements for concrete batch plants last week, before the EPA study was completed, Wilson hopes their work can help the agency develop better guidance and policies for how to consider cumulative impacts from industry in future permit decisions.
At noon, as the EPA scientists on the boat approached the lake shore, Cisneros, the neighborhood association director, waited with her two nephews and her mom to see what the EPA crew caught.
The group did not catch any of the fish they were looking for, but a local resident who caught a bass with a fishing rod donated it so the EPA can test its tissue.
Cisneros said the EPA’s attention to her community is a relief because at times she feels like her concerns are ignored by state regulators.
“The EPA is being brave,” Cisneros said earlier in the day while sitting with her 4-year-old daughter, Lila Rosa Bravero, under the park’s pavilion. “They are not fearing that this [project] might open up a can of worms.”
Disclosure: The Texas Parks And Wildlife Department has been a financial supporter of The Texas Tribune, a nonprofit, nonpartisan news organization that is funded in part by donations from members, foundations and corporate sponsors. Financial supporters play no role in the Tribune’s journalism. Find a complete list of them here.
This article originally appeared in The Texas Tribune at https://www.texastribune.org/2024/02/02/epa-concrete-batch-plants-study-dallas/.
Cardi B, one of hip-hop’s most outsize personalities — and one of its most reliable hitmakers — is coming to Dallas.
The New York City-born rapper broke through in 2017 with the hit single “Bodak Yellow,” launching a chart-topping run that soon included “I Like It” and the blockbuster hit “WAP.” Her Grammy-winning debut album, Invasion of Privacy, cemented her as a defining voice in contemporary rap, blending brash humor, confessional storytelling and club-ready production.
The 33-year-old’s success helped boost the profile of women in a genre long dominated by men, encouraging record labels to sign more female rappers. She has frequently teamed up with rising female artists, including GloRilla, FendiDa Rappa and “WAP” collaborator Megan Thee Stallion.
Cardi’s stop at American Airlines Center is part of the arena run supporting her second studio album, 2025’s Am I the Drama? Recent shows in the “Little Miss Drama Tour” have leaned into spectacle, with elaborate staging, surprise guest appearances and a set list that spans her entire career.
Fans can expect a high-energy performance built around booming trap beats, pop hooks and Cardi’s signature unfiltered banter — the same mix that has helped her sell out dates across the tour and turn concerts into party-like events.
DETAILS: March 7 at 7:30 p.m. at American Airlines Center in Dallas. Tickets start at $334.10, but some verified resale tickets are cheaper. ticketmaster.com.
Pop legend Diana Ross performs March 7 at the WinStar World Casino in Thackerville, Oklahoma.
Sarah Hepola
OTHER CONCERTS
Bluesy psychedelic rock band All Them Witches performs March 7 at House of Blues Dallas.
Travis Pinson
ALL THEM WITCHES March 7 at 8 p.m. at House of Blues Dallas. ticketmaster.com.
DIANA ROSS March 7 at 8 p.m. at WinStar World Casino in Thackerville, Okla. winstar.com.
RICH BRIAN March 7 at 8 p.m. at The Bomb Factory in Deep Ellum. axs.com.
TRACE ADKINS March 7 at 10 p.m. at Billy Bob’s Texas in Fort Worth. billybobstexas.com.
AFROJACK March 8 at 3 p.m. at It’ll Do Club in Deep Ellum. eventbrite.com.
LITHE March 8 at 8 p.m. at House of Blues Dallas. ticketmaster.com.
CONAN GRAY March 10 at 8 p.m. at Dickies Arena in Fort Worth. ticketmaster.com.
MATISYAHU March 10 at 8 p.m. at the Granada Theater in Dallas. prekindle.com.
OUR LADY PEACE, WITH THE VERVE PIPE March 12 at 8 p.m. at Tannahill’s Tavern and Music Hall in Fort Worth. ticketmaster.com.
PAUL WALL March 12 at 9 p.m. and March 13 at 10 p.m. at Billy Bob’s Texas in Fort Worth. billybobstexas.com.
The fiercest legislative primary fights Tuesday in North Texas were inside the GOP.
In Dallas County, two moderate GOP incumbent representatives faced challengers after being censured by their own county party.
In Collin County, several Republican state House members were fending off rivals running to their right.
The Dallas Morning News will provide live election results this evening when the polls close at 7 p.m. Results will be updated throughout the evening for statewide races and Dallas, Collin, Denton, Ellis, Kaufman, Rockwall and Tarrant counties.
Dallas County, House District 108
Republican Morgan Meyer, first elected in 2014, was challenged by attorney Sanjay Narayan in a district that includes the Park Cities, Oak Lawn and Preston Hollow.
Narayan criticized Meyer for backing renewable energy expansion and for being censured by the Dallas GOP last year.
Meyer was among House Republicans targeted after disputes over the House speaker vote and chamber rules. He and other lawmakers called the censure effort unconstitutional.
In the campaign, Meyer focused on property tax relief and emergency preparedness after the Camp Mystic tragedy.
Small business owner Allison Mitchell is unopposed in the Democratic primary.
Dallas County, House District 112
Republican Angie Chen Button, who has represented the district covering parts of Dallas, Richardson and Garland since 2009, drew three primary opponents.
Button has highlighted her support for small businesses and public schools and her bipartisan record. A senior member of the Ways and Means Committee, she would play a key role in the state’s property tax debate if reelected.
Dallas-area delegation in the Texas House of Representatives on Sunday, May 30, 2021, showing State Rep. Angie Chen Button, R-Garland, in the chamber.
Bob Daemmrich / Bob Daemmrich/CapitolPressPhoto
Opponents Chad Carnahan and Tina Price attacked Button for being censured by the Dallas GOP last year, a move she and other lawmakers have criticized as an internal party power struggle.
Carnahan, a businessman, said he wants to lower property taxes and prevent Shariah in Texas.
Price said she would improve public schools and spur the re-use of old buildings. Also in the GOP race: Perry E. Barker Sr.
Democrat Zach Herbert was unopposed.
Collin County, House District 61
Two Republicans are seeking to represent the district that covers most of McKinney and parts of Frisco and Celina.
Incumbent Keresa Richardson, who was elected in 2024, and former state Rep. Frederick Frazier both support eliminating property taxes.
Richardson, an entrepreneur, said she would expand the Texas voucher-like program for education.
Frazier, a former police officer and McKinney City Council member, was more cautious about expanding the program.
Frederick Frazier speaks as Rep. Keresa Richardson looks on during a candidate forum for Republicans in Collin County ahead of the March primary election at Prestonwood Baptist Church in Plano, Texas, Tuesday, February 10, 2026.
Anja Schlein / Special Contributor
Two political newcomers, Jackie Bescherer and Brittany Black, are running in the Democratic primary. Both oppose Texas’ voucher program and vow to increase public education funding.
Collin County, House District 67
Republican Rep. Jeff Leach, first elected in 2012, faces Matt Thorsen in a district that includes parts of Plano, Allen, McKinney and Melissa.
Leach has highlighted his conservative record, including legislation barring Shariah in Texas courts. He also served as a House impeachment manager during Attorney General Ken Paxton’s 2023 trial, a role he has defended amid backlash from activists.
Thorsen, a small business owner and former youth pastor, helped lead the effort to censure Leach last year. He has criticized Leach’s impeachment role and accused him of siding with Democrats on House rules.
Both support eliminating property taxes, expanding education savings accounts and oppose the development formerly known as EPIC City. Two Democrats are also running, though the district has leaned Republican.
Collin County, House District 70
Three Republicans are competing for the nomination to run against incumbent Democrat Mihaela Plesa, who is running unopposed in her party’s primary.
Democrat Mihaela Plesa responds to questions during a District 70 Candidate Forum hosted by Raise Your Hand Texas at Plano ISD Academy High School in Plano on Wednesday, Oct. 19, 2022.
Liesbeth Powers / Staff Photographer
George Flint, a former district judge and Collin County Republican Party Chair, emphasized eliminating property taxes and securing the border in his campaign.
Jack Ryan Gallagher, an attorney, said he would attract companies to North Texas, improve public schools and partner with local law enforcement if elected.
Michael Hewitt, an attorney, said he would gradually lower property taxes and work to keep Texas a business-friendly state.
The district includes parts of Plano, Richardson and Far North Dallas.
Dallas, TX
Dallas Fed says ‘older, experienced workers’ likely have less cause for concern about AI job displacement
Artificial intelligence hasn’t yet triggered the broad job losses many feared — at least not for experienced workers.
That’s the takeaway from a new analysis by J. Scott Davis, an assistant vice president at the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas, who examined employment and wage trends in industries most exposed to artificial intelligence.
Davis argues the data tell a more nuanced story — one that’s challenging the traditional career ladder, and helping older employees earn a bit more.
Since ChatGPT’s debut in late 2022, overall US employment has risen about 2.5%, according to Davis’ analysis, which uses an AI exposure index developed by researchers and published in the Strategic Management Journal. At the same time, employment in the sectors most exposed to AI has slipped by roughly 1%.
Wages tell a different story. The average weekly pay nationwide has climbed 7.5% since fall 2022. And across the most AI-exposed industries, wages have grown faster, up 8.5%.
If AI were simply replacing workers, both employment and wages would likely be falling, Davis wrote.
Instead, Davis points to a divide between “codified” knowledge — the kind learned from textbooks and in university courses — and “tacit” knowledge gained from hands-on work experience.
“Returns on job experience are increasing in AI-exposed occupations,” Davis wrote. “Young workers with primarily codifiable knowledge and limited experience will likely face challenging job markets.”
Using Bureau of Labor Statistics data, his analysis found that the occupations most exposed to AI tend to offer larger pay premiums for experienced workers.
In roles with less hands-on experience, AI exposure is associated with weaker wage growth, he wrote.
Workers under 25 in AI-exposed industries have also experienced employment declines, according to Davis’ analysis.
“There appears to be less cause for concern about widespread job displacement for older, experienced workers,” he wrote.
A less dire picture… so far
The findings offer a counterpoint to the more apocalyptic predictions about AI’s impact on the labor market.
Last week, Citrini Research published a memo, written from the hypothetical perspective in 2028, that theorized how AI could crush the US jobs market and trigger a broad-based market collapse.
“What if our AI bullishness continues to be right…and what if that’s actually bearish?” the memo asked.
Top executives inside the AI companies are worried about jobs, too.
Dario Amodei, the CEO of Anthropic, the company that runs Claude, warned that AI could eliminate 50% of entry-level office jobs. OpenAI’s head of product, Olivier Godement, said the life sciences, customer service, and computer engineering industries were all about to get automated. And Boris Cherny, the creator of Claude Code, said that he doesn’t believe the job title “software engineer” will exist next year.
For now, at least, the Dallas Fed paints a different picture of today’s jobs market. It points to less mass displacement and market ruptures — and more power for employees who already have their foot in the door.
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