As the Huffines communities began clearing land and burning trees for an upcoming subdivision in an unincorporated area near Allen and Lucas this year, local residents and conservationists worried about the health and environmental impact of the controversial land clearing method .
Inspiration, a master plan community of 1,400 homes, is located on Collin County property near an animal rehabilitation center and the shores of Lavon Lake.
Local residents told the Dallas Morning News that they are concerned about the potential health risks for people with asthma or lung diseases. Some are now calling for stricter safeguards and want the county to follow an interpretation of the law that restricts burning outdoors.
Jeff Henderson, a firefighter who lives near the scene of the fire, said his house was filled with the smell of smoke in February when the developer burned the first round of trees.
“At some point it’s a health risk,” he said. “It’s just not healthy to breathe this crap.”
Conservationists say the burn is “deeply worrying” as the area is part of Texas’ Blackland Prairie – a critically endangered ecoregion where only 1% of the original vegetation remains, according to the World Wildlife Fund.
Other agencies estimate it is only 0.1% left, and the U.S. Conservation Agency says it is the most critically endangered ecology in North America.
“Every fragment is precious. Every hectare is precious, ”said environmental scientist Lorelei Stierlen, who is responsible for the conservation and restoration of the Blackland Prairie Raptor Center in Lucas.
This isn’t the company’s first interaction with North Texans upset about the land clearing.
Don Huffines, who co-owns the company with his brother, is running for governor of Texas. Representatives from the Huffines Communities and the Huffines Campaign did not respond to requests for comment.
When the organization burned a second time in August, a resident contacted an investigator for the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality, who came out a few hours later and performed an air quality test on site.
The results were in the acceptable range for federal air quality standards – but only just barely, according to KERA.
The agency cited Huffine’s Communities for an air quality violation, the station reported. But the TCEQ can’t regulate outdoor combustion and fire safety – that’s the county’s job, said a TCEQ spokesman.
Eventually, the Huffines communities stopped burning the pile of trees and used a wood chopper instead, according to KERA.
But the legal limbo of living in a community-free area posed a burning question for some residents: Who can regulate and extinguish the fire?
Who is responsible?
Residents contacted the local fire department, the district court and TCEQ. They said it was legal to burn and it was not their job to regulate it.
Under state law, cities can prohibit outdoor burning and issue incineration permits.
However, it is unclear who will regulate this in unincorporated districts. Collin County officials say it is not their job to issue cremation permits – and state law does not give them the authority to do so.
“We are legally unable to do what you have asked us to do,” Collin County Judge Chris Hill wrote in an email to residents this summer.
With Texas’s population continuing to boom, this could pose a challenge as developers build neighborhoods in the county’s land.
Henderson said he was not concerned with whether the county can stop the cremation or whether the actions of the Huffines parishes are lawful.
“This is not about what is legal or not. It’s about being a good neighbor, ”he said.
If residents want a policy change, they must turn to state lawmakers, Hill said.
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