MEDIA ROUND-UP: Stewart Creek/area outside Frisco Exide lead smelter polluted with lead, cadmium, arsenic, TCEQ 2011 reports show; Frisco’s plans have shown Creek flowing into proposed Grand Park pools, ponds, lake for some time; Creek is Lake Lewisville tributary, feeds area water supply
TO SEE PHOTOS OF TAKEN BY TCEQ OF STEWART CREEK INSIDE THE EXIDE LEAD SMELTER PROPERTY CLICK HERE
Grand Park is mentioned several times in the City of Frisco’s Comprehensive Plan, which was last updated in 2006.
From Frisco’s Comprehensive Plan’s Introduction to the Land Use Strategy (Chapter 4):
“The right of a municipality to coordinate growth is rooted in its need to protect health, safety and welfare of local citizens. An important part of establishing the guidelines for such responsibility is the Land Use Strategy, which establishes an overall framework for the preferred pattern of development within Frisco. Specifically, the Land Use Strategy designates various areas within the City for particular land uses, based principally on the specific land use policies outlined herein. The Land Use Strategy is graphically depicted for use during the development plan review process with the Future Land Use Plan (Plate 4-2, page 4.10), the Land Use Strategy should ultimately be reflected through the City’s policy and development decisions. The Future Land Use Plan is not a zoning map, which deals with specific development requirements on individual parcels. The zoning map and changes in zoning should, however, be based on the Land Use Strategy and related Future Land Use Plan. In general, the Land Use Strategy is intended to be a comprehensive blueprint of Frisco’s vision for its future land use pattern.”
The image below shows information about Grand Park from Frisco’s Parks and Recreation Department’s Undeveloped Parks web page –
When you click on the Master Plan link on that page, you are taken to a document which shows the Revised Master Plan for Grand Park from October 2011. The image below is a screen shot of that document, showing the planned expansion area for Grand Park that has water from Stewart Creek flowing through it. Before Stewart Creek reaches the proposed park expansion area, it has flowed through Exide’s lead smelter property, which is to the right and not shown.
The image below is was created by taking a screen shot of Google Maps today with the location of the Exide lead smelter marked with the red “A” map point, then highlighting Stewart Creek in light red and outlining the proposed expansion area for Grand Park inside the green box. 
“Frisco’s Grand Park progress moving forward” – FRISCO ENTERPRISE, Oct. 26, 2012
MEDIA REPORTS
DALLAS MORNING NEWS
Editorial: Frisco must keep residents better informed on Exide cleanup
Updated:Â 14 July 2013 10:34 PM
Now they know, thanks to recent open records requests from Frisco Unleaded and Downwinders at Risk to state environmental officials. Waste materials from battery recycling processes exist in the 340-acre Grand Park area, the proposed site of an elaborate regional park.
If you live in Frisco, you should be perturbed that you didn’t hear this sobering news sooner — or hear it from the city, which has known of these findings for a couple of months. Instead, the information comes from environmental groups that stumbled across the test results in the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality’s response to their records request.
Given the lingering controversy over the extent and pace of the cleanup of Exide’s plant site, city officials owed it to residents to disclose everything they knew as soon as they learned it. Governmental transparency and communication are important, especially when health, safety, property values and the credibility of cleanup efforts are at stake. This is important because the new reports detail problems on land outside of Exide’s property that need to be cleaned up.
City officials contend they’ve been open with residents and last Monday filed an application to include the Grand Park area in a state voluntary cleanup program.
The city has done itself no favors by sitting on information. Frustrated with the pace of the cleanup, environmental groups want the Environmental Protection Agency to issue an imminent and substantial endangerment order and take over cleanup from TCEQ, which they allege is moving too slowly. While that is unlikely, the complaint underscores the desire of residents and environmental groups to make sure the cleanup is done properly.
What Frisco residents want is what any resident of any community wants — assurances that land that could house levels of lead, cadmium and arsenic in excess of state benchmarks will be cleaned up. The best way to do that is for Frisco to make sure residents know what’s going on — even steps the city might think are minor and procedural. And if subsequent testing definitively links the broader contamination to Exide, then Frisco has to make sure the battery company, now in bankruptcy proceedings, will pay for the cleanup.
More than a year has passed since Exide and Frisco struck a landmark deal to shutter the battery recycler, a major step toward Frisco reclaiming industrial land for a cleaner environment and recreational purposes. Now Frisco must make sure that the area is free of potentially deadly contaminants and that residents are fully aware of the extent of contamination.
Frisco has an opportunity to use land for a grand community vision, but it has to deal openly and transparently with residents and make sure those responsible for the contamination clean up the mess they’ve made.
Exide and Frisco
April 1964:Â Ground is broken for the Gould National Batteries Inc. oxide manufacturing plant, which opens later that year in Frisco.
1969:Â The plant begins recycling batteries.
November 1991:Â The area around the Frisco plant is declared to be in nonattainment because its lead emissions exceed the 1978 federal air-quality standard.
2000:Â Exide Technologies acquires the plant.
October 2008:Â Exide files an application with the state to increase production.
November 2010:Â The EPA officially designates an area around the plant as being in nonattainment for lead.
July 2011:Â Environmental groups call for improvements beyond what Exide proposes.
August 2011:Â The residents group Frisco Unleaded forms with a goal of closing Exide.
May 2012:Â A proposal is announced for Frisco to buy land from Exide and for Exide to cease operations by the end of the year and begin cleaning up the site.
July 2013:Â Environmental groups uncover reports indicating contamination in the Grand Park area.
 FRISCO ENTERPRISE
Contamination discovered beyond Exide plant boundaries
By Anthony Tosie, atosie@starlocalnews.com, @anthonytosie on Twitter
Editor’s Note: An earlier version of this article, published at 5 p.m. July 10, incorrectly referred to an environmental inspector stating the city planned to cover chips near Stewart Creek with specialized fabric. The inspector cited was not referring to any chips which may have been found on Grand Park property. The article has been updated to correct the error.
Battery chips and hazardous materials likely originating from the closed Exide Technologies plant have been discovered along Stewart Creek, and many clusters reside on land that will be used for the city’s proposed 275-acre regional park.
Frisco Unleaded, an advocacy group monitoring the battery recycling plant’s demolition, obtained documents from the city through a Freedom of Information Act request that detailed multiple studies regarding the contamination. The documents indicate the city has been aware of the contamination for about two years.
Of numerous samples taken from the creek’s sediment in November 2011 by a city contractor, 71 percent showed levels of lead, cadmium or arsenic that exceed the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality’s ecological benchmarks. The creek, which runs from the Exide property to Lewisville Lake, is partially located where a proposed man-made lake for the city’s planned $29 million Grand Park will reside following approval from the U.S. Army Corp of Engineers.
In addition to the samples, contractors hired by the city of Frisco performed a “walking survey” earlier this year to document any visible battery chips and waste that may have originated from the Exide plant. During the visual survey, which took place in March and April, 45 locations along the five-mile path of Stewart Creek were documented as showing battery chips or waste.
A potentially hazardous sample was found near where the creek merges with Lewisville Lake.
Meghan Green, a board member of Frisco Unleaded, said the potential contamination of Stewart Creek will continue until Exide’s land is fully cleaned to acceptable levels.
“The creek itself has been remediated multiple times — this isn’t a new problem,” she said. “This all goes back to Exide’s land, which is the source of the problem. When we went to look at a portion of the creek near Exide, it took us maybe five minutes to find battery chips — they were everywhere.”
Green added that she supports the regional park but wants the city to ensure visitors will be protected.
“Grand Park is going to be great for the city of Frisco, and I can’t wait to take my children there,” she said. “I just want the park done right, and to do that we have to focus on the source of the problem. Unless Exide’s property is cleaned up fully, this is going to be an issue for a long time. I’m optimistic it will be resolved, but by exposing these documents we’re hoping people will understand this is more than just an air pollution problem — it’s the water and land as well.”
In joint meetings held by the Frisco City Council and its Grand Park subcommittee, city officials have maintained that any land used for Grand Park will meet rigorous standards set by both the city and U.S. Army Corp of Engineers. City Manager George Purefoy echoed those statements at a town hall meeting last month, saying any contamination will be removed.
Last year, however, a TCEQ inspector wrote that she worried park attendees could be harmed by potential contamination from the Exide plant.
In a letter to her supervisors, the inspector wrote that battery chips were discovered in areas of Exide’s land that were previously cleaned. The chips, she said, were likely being carried into Stewart Creek by rainwater.
According to the inspector’s letter, a city official said areas of city property where chips were discovered would be covered by a specialized fabric lining to prevent rainwater from carrying them into Stewart Creek.
“I pointed out that … there were just too many [battery chips] that had accumulated to be covered up with the fabric. As we all know, these chips move under rainy conditions,” she wrote. “I told [the city] that our concern, and I’m sure the city’s concern as well, is if these battery chips made it into Stewart Creek and flowed to Grand Park where a parent who is also a Frisco resident pulls one out of their child’s mouth.”
Mack Borchardt, who is overseeing the Exide cleanup as a special assistant to the city manager, said the city isn’t hiding the contamination as the area is still in the process of being studied.
“When we provide information, we have to be mindful that it’s accurate — not just what we believe is going to be the case,” he said. “The land being used for Grand Park was farm land for a long time, and only recently has the city fully owned all of it. We intended to do an environmental assessment all along, and that’s what we’re doing. It’s been factored into the Grand Park project from the beginning.”
Borchardt added that he doesn’t expect the studies to impact progress on Grand Park. The city will enter a voluntary cleanup program monitored by the TCEQ, he said, and seek financial reimbursement from Exide if the company is found to be the source of the pollution.
Green said Frisco Unleaded members are hopeful the Environmental Protection Agency will become involved in the cleanup to provide a “security blanket” of federal oversight, though city officials have said there are no plans to seek full EPA oversight.
An Exide spokeswoman said the city informed the company of the studies and that discussions regarding the cleanup of the company’s property with city and environmental agency officials are ongoing.
WFAA
Frisco: Contaminants won’t delay Grand Park project
by STEVE STOLER
WFAA
Posted on July 10, 2013 at 4:44 PM
Updated Wednesday, Jul 10 at 7:58 PM
Gallery
FRISCO –– The discovery of several contaminants at Frisco’s Grand Park site has local environmentalists wondering who will foot the bill for the project.
An e-mail from the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality noted contamination down Stewart Creek, which runs through the middle of the planned 340-acre park development meant to replace the Exide Technologies battery lead recycling plant.
Exide ceased operations in November of last year after reaching a $45 million deal with the city of Frisco. The plant repeatedly failed to meet federal lead emission guidelines. Under the deal, the Frisco plant would cease operations and be torn down. Exide was responsible for the cleanup.
The city bought 180 acres of undeveloped land from the company for $45 million, which it planned to use for the private development. But there’s a new wrinkle: The state discovered contaminants along the creek, which runs through the middle of the planned park site.
Lead battery chips were found along the banks, which likely came from the defunct Exide plant. The facility recycled lead car batteries for the past 42 years.
“I want to see the park here,” said Meaghan Green, with the local environmental group, Frisco Unleaded. “I think it’s going to be grand. However, it needs to be cleaned up.”
Mack Borchardt, the former Frisco fire chief who’s overseeing the Exide cleanup, says he’s not surprised battery chips were found. He says since Stewart Creek runs downstream from the plant to the park site, city leaders expected to find contamination here.
“I don’t believe it will delay any plans actually,” said Borchardt. “I think it will fall into place as we move forward with that project.”
But Exide recently declared bankruptcy, fueling concern about who will foot the bill for the cleanup. Borchardt says it would be Exide’s responsibility, as the deal established.
“I would agree that this is Exide’s problem,” said Green. “However, with bankruptcy looming above them, I don’t have an answer.”
Grand Park plans call for several small lakes that will be built along the current path of Stewart Creek. The city has enrolled in a voluntary cleanup program sponsored by the TCEQ to get the lead out.
Borchardt said the city will conduct more testing across all 340 acres of the park site to make sure any contaminants found here are removed before construction begins.
E-mail sstoler@wfaa.com
FRISCO ENTERPRISE
Contamination discovered beyond Exide plant boundaries
Battery chips and hazardous materials likely originating from the closed Exide Technologies plant have been discovered along Stewart Creek, and many clusters reside on land that will be used for the city’s proposed 275-acre regional park.
Frisco Unleaded, an advocacy group monitoring the battery recycling plant’s demolition, obtained documents from the city of Frisco through a Freedom of Information Act request that detailed multiple studies regarding the contamination. The documents indicate the city has been aware of the contamination for about two years.
Of numerous samples taken from the creek’s sediment in November 2011 by a city contractor, 71 percent showed levels of lead, cadmium or arsenic that exceed the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality’s ecological benchmarks. The creek, which runs from the Exide property to Lewisville Lake, is partially located where a proposed man-made lake for the city’s planned $29 million Grand Park will reside following approval from the U.S. Army Corp of Engineers.
In addition to the samples, contractors hired by the city of Frisco performed a “walking survey†earlier this year to document any visible battery chips and waste that may have originated from the Exide plant. During the visual survey, which took place in March and April, 45 locations along the five-mile path of Stewart Creek were documented as showing battery chips or waste.
A potentially hazardous sample was found near where the creek merges with Lewisville Lake.
Meghan Green, a board member of Frisco Unleaded, said the potential contamination of Stewart Creek will continue until Exide’s land is fully cleaned to acceptable levels.
“The creek itself has been remediated multiple times – this isn’t a new problem,†she said. “This all goes back to Exide’s land, which is the source of the problem. When we went to look at a portion of the creek near Exide, it took us maybe five minutes find battery chips – they were everywhere.â€
Green added that she supports Grand Park, she just wants the city to make sure park visitors will be protected.
“Grand Park is going to be great for the city of Frisco, and I can’t wait to take my children there,†she said. “I just want the park done right, and to do that we have to focus on the source of the problem. Unless Exide’s property is cleaned up fully, this is going to be an issue for a long time. I’m optimistic it will be resolved, but by exposing these documents we’re hoping people will understand this is more than just an air pollution problem – it’s the water and land as well.â€
In joint meetings held by the Frisco City Council and its Grand Park subcommittee, city officials have maintained that any land used for Grand Park will meet rigorous standards set by both the city and U.S. Army Corp of Engineers. City Manager George Purefoy echoed those statements at a town hall meeting last month, saying any contamination will be removed.
Last year, however, a TCEQ inspector wrote that she worried park attendees could be harmed by potential contamination from the Exide plant.
In a letter to her supervisors, the inspector wrote that battery chips were discovered in areas of Exide’s land that were previously cleaned. The chips, she said, were likely being carried into Stewart Creek by rainwater. According to the inspector, a city official said areas of the creek where the chips were discovered would be covered by a specialized fabric lining when Grand Park is developed.
“I pointed out that … there were just too many [battery chips] that had accumulated to be covered up with the fabric. As we all know, these chips move under rainy conditions,†she wrote. “I told [the city] that our concern, and I’m sure the city’s concern as well, is if these battery chips made it into Stewart Creek and flowed to Grand Park where a parent who is also a Frisco resident pulls one out of their child’s mouth.â€
Mack Borchardt, a special assistant to the city manager who is overseeing the Exide cleanup, said the city isn’t hiding the contamination as the city is still in the process of studying the area, he said.
“When we provide information, we have to be mindful that it’s accurate – not just what we believe is going to be the case,†he said. “The land being used for Grand Park was farm land for a long time, and only recently has the city fully owned all of it. We intended to do an environmental assessment all along, and that’s what we’re doing. It’s been factored into the Grand Park project from the beginning.â€
Borchardt added that he doesn’t expect the studies to impact progress on Grand Park. The city will enter a voluntary cleanup program monitored by the TCEQ, he said, and it will seek financial reimbursement from Exide if the company is found to be the source of the pollution.
Green said Frisco Unleaded members are hopeful the Environmental Protection Agency will become involved in the cleanup to provide a “security blanket†of federal oversight, though city officials have said there are no plans to seek full EPA oversight.
An Exide spokeswoman said the city informed the company of the studies and that discussions regarding the cleanup of the company’s property with city and environmental agency officials are ongoing.
DALLAS OBSERVER
TCEQ Staff Fears Frisco Parents May End Up Pulling Lead Chips “Out of Their Child’s Mouth” At Grand Park
 |
| Frisco Unleaded |
| A map of battery chips found around Stewart Creek and the planned Grand Park. |
Grand Park, Frisco’s planned $23-million, 275-acre paradise of the outer-ring ‘burbs, will probably be contaminated with lead, and staffers at the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality know it, according to documents and emails obtained by Frisco Unleaded.
As we’ve reported before, the park’s lake and water features will be fed by Stewart Creek, which flows past the upstream Exide lead smelter. For years, the plant dumped slag and battery chips into the waterway and onto its banks as though it were an open sewer. As part of the deal Frisco and Exide struck for the smelter’s closing, the city purchased a buffer zone from the company around the site’s polluted epicenter. TCEQ approved a clean-up plan of what’s known as the “J-Parcel,” submitted by Frisco officials.
Yet it’s clear from correspondence between TCEQ’s own inspectors that they don’t believe the city is doing nearly enough about the “battery chips” sluicing with rainwater toward the creek, all along Grand Park’s planned eastern border. Apparently, Frisco officials intend to line the afflicted soil with a “geomembrane fabric.” A TCEQ inspector told deputy city manager Henry Hill that there were too many chunks of battery to simply cover up.
“As we all know, these chips move under rainy conditions,” the inspector writes in an email obtained by Frisco Unleaded. “I told Mr. Hill that our concern and I’m sure the city’s concern as well is if these battery chips made it into Stewart Creek and flowed to Grand Park where a parent who is also a Frisco resident pulls one out of their child’s mouth.”
What’s more, the creek itself around Grand Park’s future site is contaminated with levels of arsenic, cadmium and lead “exceed(ing) the TCEQ ecological benchmark for sediment,” according to an environmental assessment commissioned by the city in 2011. Battery chips were even discovered by inspectors at the mouth of the creek where it feeds into Lake Lewisville
“It’s clear that the toxins at the smelter are being washed into Stewart Creek with each rainfall and are surfacing and will continue to surface along the whole length of the Creek, which happens to also be a tributary into Lake Lewisville,” says Frisco Unleaded board member Meghan Green. “To add insult to injury, Lake Lewisville is a source of drinking water for Dallas. To say that I’m concerned is an understatement. It’s time for the EPA to get more aggressive about protecting public health from this site.”
WFAA
Contamination concerns near former Frisco recycling plant
by JOBIN PANICKER
WFAA
Posted on July 9, 2013 at 11:11 PM
Updated yesterday at 1:44 AM
FRISCO — For the first time, documents show contamination concerns extend beyond the site of the former Exide Technologies lead recycling plant in Frisco.
News 8 has learned that battery and chemical waste was discovered along five miles of Stewart Creek. The creek also runs close to Grand Park, where the City of Frisco is proposing a major new development.
Equila Harper, who heads up local environmental group Frisco Unleaded, is in search of battery chips — black pieces of plastic seen on the ground. She said they are everywhere along Stewart Creek.
These are deposits from the now-shuttered recycling plant.
“Until the source of contamination is taken care of, this community will forever have this problem,” Harper said.
Frisco ordered a walking survey because the land in question is crucial to Grand Park, the city’s next big development.
And Stewart Creek runs right through it.
“With Exide being there, there was an anticipation that there was a potential for chips to be in Stewart Creek having come from the plant down the creek,” said Mack Borchardt, special assistant to the Frisco city manager.
Survey results obtained by news 8 prove there were “occurrences” of chips found along the creek.
But there could be a bigger problem. The creek drains into Lewisville Lake.
“None of that info has been made public to the community,” Stewart said.
The Texas Commission on Environmental Quality is overseeing the cleanup at the Exide plant. It is clear in an email released in a public records request that the agency knew there was an issue last year.
A TCEQ employee wrote: “It is a concern if a Frisco resident pulls [a battery chip] out of their child’s mouth.”
TCEQ saw the independent survey, and spokesman Terry Clawson said:
“The observation of chips indicate that additional investigation of the creek is warranted to determine if they pose a risk to human health or the environment.”
But it’s not just the battery fragments. Frisco Unleaded made a recent public records request for sediment samples taken in a 2011 study. That study tested levels for lead, cadmium, selenium and arsenic over samples at 30 sites. The majority of the samples tested exceeded the TCEQ ecological benchmark.
Frisco says cleanup of Stewart Creek will take a year, and it will require additional testing.
“We will develop a more comprehensive testing plan for that entire property in concert with TCEQ,” Borchardt said.
On Monday, Frisco applied for a voluntary cleanup with TCEQ. But who will pay for it?
The city said “there is an expectation that Exide would cover it.” That company, however, filed for bankruptcy protection last month.
E-mail jpanicker@wfaa.com
CULTURE MAP
Don’t Go In The Water
Environmental group exposes water contamination in Frisco’s Stewart Creek
An environmental activist group has released a report calling the water in Frisco’s Stewart Creek contaminated, with a charge that the City of Frisco knows about it. This is the same creek that the city is proposing to feed the new $23 million Grand Park development.
Frisco Unleaded found studies commissioned by the City of Frisco showing many instances of chemical contamination. The group is asking the EPA to take control of cleanup efforts and declare “imminent danger†at the site. City officials maintain that a voluntary cleanup program is sufficient.
The studies, which were released in March and May of 2013, were only made public when Frisco Unleaded completed Freedom of Information Act requests to the city. CultureMap has also reviewed copies of the studies.
“This is a family-oriented community, and they look forward to that park being there,” Frisco’s Mack Borchardt says.
A May 2013 survey from Southwest Geoscience noted that portions of Stewart Creek had “arsenic, cadmium and lead concentrations above the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality ecological benchmarks.†There’s evidence that the creek was contaminated for decades by the Exide Technologies battery recycling plant, which opened in the 1960s and was shut down in November 2012.
The interim survey also recognized other industrial impacts of the Exide facility, including the presence of lead slag and batter chips. The survey called for further study and remediation efforts.
“These reports show why any activity downstream of the smelter, including the enjoyment of the new Grand Park, will be impossible without a comprehensive cleanup of the entire Exide site,†Friso Unleaded’s Meghan Green said.
In November 2011 (a year before the Exide plant was completely shut down), Southwest Geoscience conducted another study of Stewart Creek “in the vicinity of Grand Park.” Southwest received the study in March 2013. According to its findings, 71 percent of sediment samples from Stewart Creek had unacceptable levels of lead, cadmium and arsenic.
Mack Borchardt, a special assistant to the city manager who is assigned to the Grand Park project, says the concrete knowledge of arsenic and lead contamination in Stewart Creek is “relatively new information.” However, the lifelong Frisco resident said many people suspected the Exide plant had polluted the waterway.
Borchardt says the concept for Grand Park was developed “a few years ago” and he’s not sure of the exact timeline of when the city became aware of definite pollution in Stewart Creek and when it decided to build a water-based recreation facility fed by the creek.
The City of Frisco touts Grand Park as a unique, 275-acre development with a variety of family friendly water activities.
“I’m not an expert. I’m not a technical person, so to speak,” Borchardt says, adding, “This is a family-oriented community, and they look forward to that park being there.”
Frisco Unleaded also released an email from Dorothy Lewis of the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality. In it, Lewis recognized that battery chips are washing up on the shores of Stewart Creek and are likely contaminated with higher than acceptable levels of lead. Lewis raised the possibility of a battery chip flowing from Stewart Creek to Grand Park and ultimately finding its way into a child’s mouth.
Borchardt emphasizes that the park is still in the very early planning stages. He says the city is working closely with the EPA and Texas Commission on Environmental Quality to cleanup the creek and the area surrounding the proposed park.
“It is not developed. It is basically raw farmland,” he says. “Now is the time to do that, at the beginning phases before any construction takes place.”
