What is Fort Bend Houston Super Neighborhood (FBHSN41)?

Mission and Goals:

Community Background/Conditions community that including its historical racial/ethnic and socioeconomic characteristics. The Fort Bend Super Neighborhood Council has been organized to promote the civic improvement and social interest of the residents, business and property owners, and other designated representative groups within the boundaries of the Super Neighborhood 41.

The Council seeks to promote and engage in activities for the use and benefit of all designated representatives within Super Neighborhood.

The Council seeks community consensus to provide citizens with opportunities to advise the Houston’s Mayor’s Office, City Council and other entities on issues important to the Super Neighborhood. The Council also undertakes a wide range of neighborhood improvement projects determined by the members, and, with cooperation from the City of Houston, identifies and develops solutions to mutual problems including the development of Super Neighborhood Action Plans (SNAP) to address identified opportunities for improvement.

LEARN MORE ABOUT THE COUNCIL

The Council

The board members of Fort Bend Houston Super Neighborhood 41 Council are all African- American. The board is comprised of women and men. The Super Neighborhood41 program was made a part of the City of Houston Code of Ordinances in 2003 under the administration of former Houston Mayor Lee Brown (1998 – 2004). The program established 88 Super Neighborhoods across the City of Houston.

Each Super Neighborhood represents a group of homeowners association, civic clubs, places of worship, businesses, and other institutions and community interests. The intent of the program is to bring these groups together to encourage greater community involvement, identify community needs, and coordinate hyper-local problem solving initiatives.

Fort Bend Houston Super Neighborhood 41 was recognized as a Super Neighborhood in 2002. It is comprised of religious institutions, civic clubs and homeowner associations.

Population

In 2015, the total population of the Fort Bend Houston Super Neighborhood was an estimated 33,630 persons and 10,260 households. 28% of the population was under the age of 18 in 2015.

The 2015 estimated racial/ethnic profile of the Super Neighborhood population is:

  • 59% Non-Hispanic Black
  • 36% Hispanic
  • 3% Non-Hispanic White
  • 2% Other

The median household income in 2015 was $53,105, and the median housing value was $97,067.

Beginnings

From the late 1930’s to early 1960’s, much of the Fort Bend Houston area was part of the Blue Ridge State Prison Farm and most of the residents were staff members of the facility. After the Texas Department of Corrections agreed to sell the property to private developers, a collection of middle class subdivisions was developed in the area in the 1960s and 1970s. Beginning in the mid to late 1970s, the area began to attract middle class African-American families and quickly became a majority African-American community.

Most of the current Fort Bend Super Neighborhood area was incorporated into the City of Houston by annexation in the late 1970s and early 1980s.

Location:

The Fort Bend Houston Super Neighborhood is located in the furthest southwestern extent of the City of Houston’s District K in Fort Bend County.

It is generally comprised of the communities’ south of the South Sam Houston Toll Road and North of FM 2234 (McHard Rd.) with Hiram Clark Rd as the approximate eastern boundary and Fondren Rd outlines the western boundary.

The Super Neighborhood also includes communities on either side of the Fort Bend Parkway and South of Hwy 90 to FM 2234. The total area of the Super Neighborhood is approximately 4,826 acres (7.54 sq. miles) and includes six Fort Bend Independent School District public schools.

A BRIEF HISTORY OF ENVIRONMENTAL JUSTICE

SUMMARY: INDUSTRIAL/SOLID WASTE IMPACT

The establishment and expansion of industrial and solid-waste management facilities began to proliferate in the unincorporated area surrounding the community shortly thereafter and the community has struggled with the encroachment of industrial land uses to the present.

The resilience issues affecting the community we serve (i.e., flooding, extreme weather, toxic exposures, drought, power outages,etc.), the root cause and underlying issues (ex., discriminatory land use planning, divestment, etc.), and the community strengths (ex., strong organizations and faith institutions.

Blue Ridge Landfill History

In 1993, development of the Blue Ridge Landfill began immediately south of the Fort Bend Houston Super Neighborhoods.

The landfill has been a persistent, ongoing source of nuisance odors to the area, and resident complaints about the facility have increased dramatically since Hurricane Harvey.

Oil Wells

More recently, one of the hundreds of active oil wells that surround the Super Neighborhood experienced a blowout in December of 2017 which released 240,000 gallons of crude oil within a mile of approximately 2,000 households

In Quail Glenn and Quail Run Neighborhood.

This incident resulted in odor and health complaints as far as 10 miles away, and the resulting hydrogen sulfide (H2S) odors forced at least one local school to close sections of its campus and shut off air conditioning vents to protect students from eye and respiratory irritation caused by the gas.

The 2017 oil well blowout served to highlight the myriad environmental risks that have intruded in this residential area. The well is part of a larger oil field that includes hundreds of active and capped wells as well as sites permitted for future drilling. Even under normal operating conditions, these wells could persistently emit low levels of H2S and volatile organic compounds (VOCs) – chemicals that may present chronic threats to health and safety during a lifetime of exposure to low concentrations. In addition to these wells and the aforementioned Blue Ridge Landfill, several industrial chemical facilities that manufacture and/or handle high-volumes of toxic substances operate just east of the Super Neighborhood.

Fort Bend Houston Air Pollution

Since 2009, five of these local facilities have emitted a combined total of over 150,000 pounds of toxics to the air, including eye and respiratory irritants and known carcinogens such as ethylene oxide, ethylbenzene (styrene), and propylene oxide. Finally, pipelines of crude oil and gasoline also crisscross the area, providing an additional source for potentially hazardous emissions.

Although the Houston area air monitoring network is considered one of the most comprehensively monitored areas in the country, there are significant gaps in the regional air monitoring network. Communities like Super Neighborhood 41, for instance, have multiple sources of air pollution, but the average distance from the community to the closest public air monitor is 7 miles away. Moreover, the closest monitor does not sample for many of the relevant pollutants emitted in the Fort Bend area.

Regulatory agencies such as the Texas Commission of Environmental Quality’s (TCEQ) regional offices and the City of Houston’s Bureau of Pollution Control and Prevention (BPCP) have responded to persistent complaints from the area (over 6,600 complaints and 222 investigations to date), but due to multiple limitations, agencies are hindered from responding quickly to air quality complaints, and the subsequent communication of monitoring results are often only provided as generalized summaries with limited amounts of quantitative or actionable data.

The result of this gap in official air monitoring capability is that many FBH Super Neighborhood 41 residents remain in the dark about the contaminants in the air that surrounds them in their daily activities, compromising their ability to advocate for change. Moreover, the lack of significant environmental enforcement action in proportion to the overwhelming public outcry has led many residents of Super Neighborhood 41 to feel that regulatory agencies have been dismissive of their concerns about local air quality and its effects on their health, which has understandably fostered an atmosphere of distrust among many residents toward regulatory agencies and pollution control offices.

Mission of Air Monitoring

This proposal seeks to establish a pilot community-based air monitoring network consisting of 3 Three air monitors.

The monitors, manufactured by APIS Inc, would be equipped to monitor for several contaminants including particulate matter (PM) and total volatile organic compounds (tVOC). In addition, with internet of things (IoT) technology, the monitoring equipment would possess the capability to alert communities when air quality levels require precautionary action, and the equipment would have the capability of capturing an ambient air quality canister sample that can be analyzed by the City of Houston Health Department labs to determine the exact composition of high tVOC samples.

It is the FBH Environmental goal to have monitors for all locations below to provide protection for schools and local residents in Super Neighborhood 41.

  1. FM 521 & McHard Rd.
  2. Hiram Clark Road & McHard Rd.
  3. Clarks Springs & Beltway 8
  4. South Post Oak & McHard Rd.
  5. Quail Run Drive & Fort Bend Parkway Toll
  6. South Post Oak Rd & Beltway 8
  7. Fondren & Beltway 8,
  8. West Fuqua & Fort Bend Parkway Toll
  9. Hillcroft & Beltway 8
  10. Chimney Rock & McHard Rd.
  11. Rockwell & Beltway 8

Fort Bend Super Neighborhood 41 has convened monthly meetings, periodic town hall meetings and community forums to inform the broader public and engage elected officials to hold facilities accountable for the environmental health and safety risks posed to these communities (e.g. Brigate, Chasewood Quail Run, Quail Glenn, Green Valley Estates, Ridgemont and Benchmark).

Many residents of the communities have expressed their concerns at these meetings about the oil well explosion, contaminated well water, the two landfills and other industrial businesses in the area. For example, residents have expressed concerns about living in homes near or on damaged soil from oil wells and electric power lines, gas-pipelines, satellite towers etc. Moreover, residents have concerns about the pipes of homes that have never been changed by City that will continue to expose them to the eroded pipes that channel contaminated well water.

Clear the Air

Air quality is another major issue of concern for residents. The impact of these environmental risks have been discussed at many meetings for a period of years and some stakeholders have been diagnosed with cancer.

Complete Community

In 2019, the Fort Bend Super Neighborhood was recognized by Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner as one of ten Super Neighborhoods to take part in the City of Houston’s Complete Communities initiative.

As a part of this initiative, the City has identified historically under-resourced communities and sought partnerships with local partners and stakeholders to enhance access to quality affordable homes, jobs, well-maintained parks, improved streets and sidewalks, grocery stores and retail, good schools, and quality transportation options.