Statistics:

• Location:
  • Center of the Golden Corridor (The ridge running from Dallas through Preston Hollow, West Plano, McKinney, East Prosper, Celina, Weston, West Van Alstyne, East Gunter, Dorchester, West Sherman, West Denison, Pottsboro to Lake Texoma. The ridge is lined by Hwy 289 on the west & Hwy 75 on the east from Dallas to the Red River.)
  • Hwy 902
• Elevation: According to Maplogs : Dorchester, TX, USA has an Elevation: 264 meters / 866 feet.
• Wind Patterns: _{(Based on my observations from living in the area and studying the wind patterns for 36 years.)}
  • Storm Winds: From Sulfur, OK towards McKinney, TX.
  • Prevailing Winds: From McKinney, TX towards Pauls Valley, OK.
  • High Velocity Destructive Winds: From Due West to Due East: (From Dorchester towards Texas Instruments)
  • Tornadic Winds: From South West to North East: (From From Gunter, TX towards East Sherman, TX.)
• Respiratory Health Risks:
  • This area of the State has an unusually high percentage of senior citizens and Vietnam Vets.
  • Respiratory illnesses are a major concern for many of our citizens.
    • Many of our senior citizens in the area struggle with pulmonary problems.
    • A friend of mine has a teenage daughter with an autoimmune disease (Eosinophilic esophagitis) which shuts down her breathing. There are many people in our area already struggling with chronic pulmonary & respiratory issues.
    • The kiln is to be built in close proximity to thousands of acres of new home construction.
• Terrain: Slow gentle rolling hills cut and carved by myriads of creeks, streams and rivers meandering their way to the various lakes and reservoirs.
• Rain Runoff: The apex of the Golden Corridor lies about a hundred yards east of the Dorchester City Hall. This landmark is where the BNSF Railroad tracks cross Highway 902. For our purposes we are going to call this apex as the Dorchester City Hall.
  • Any water that flows north of Hwy 902 flows to Lake Texoma and the Red River.
    • If the rain falls north and east of the City Hall, then it flows to the Choctaw and into the Red River.
    • If the rain falls north and west of the City Hall, then it flows to Lake Texoma and the Hagerman National Wildlife Refuge. Rain runoff through the open pit mine could wash enough calcium carbonate/lime into Lake Texoma to seriously alter the PH levels of the lake. This rise in PH could be more than sufficient to create a hazard of toxic algae blooms and major fish kills. How will this toxic soup effect the ecological balance of the Lake?
  • Any water that flows south of Hwy 902 flows to the Trinity River System.
    • Any water that flows west or southwest flows into the Trinity River Basin. That water flows into lakes Ray Roberts, Lewisville, Dallas and water systems south towards Galveston.
    • Any waters that flow due south or south east flow into the East Fork of the Trinity River. All this water flows into Lake Lavon, Lake Ray Hubbard and all the water systems south towards Galveston.
• Water Systems Affected:
  • Surface:
    • Rivers: The Red River and at least two forks of the Trinity River. (The Choctaw is a small local Creek basin that collects water from Dorchester throughout Sherman, TX and Grayson County. It channels water from the wider area to the Choctaw Creek. The Choctaw Creek empties it’s flow into the Red River down stream of Lake Texoma.
    • Lakes: Lake Texoma on the Red River, (On the Trinity) Ray Roberts, Lewisville, Dallas and all lakes south to Galveston. (On the East Fork of the Trinity) Lavon, Ray Hubbard and all lakes south to Galveston.
  • Subsurface: Any Community that draws water from the Woodbine and Trinity aquifers should be concerned.
• Federal issues:
  • Since the Indian Nations are considered separate sovereign nations, are the treaties with the nations considered international treaties?
  • Federal Navigable Water ways
  • Hagerman National Wildlife Refuge
  • Migratory birds have:
    • § 10.13 List of Birds Protected by the Migratory Bird Treaty Act. _{50 CFR 10.13}
    • national protection status
    • International treaties protection
    • United Nation Protected Status

Whenever I talk to people about the cement plant to be built in Dorchester, they inevitably start describing some batch plant being built near their homes. One lady I talked to a few nights a go actually mentioned a batch plant being built near her home. Then she said, what’s the big deal? We need the cement anyway.

It seems incredulous that people confuse a Midlothian style burn Kiln with a batch plant. According to Maplogs : Dorchester, TX, USA has an Elevation: 264 meters / 866 feet. Its been reported that the Kiln will be the largest Kiln in Texas. If the kiln has four hundred foot high smoke stacks on top of Dorchester 866 foot elevation, that would put the top of the smoke stacks about twelve hundred feet above sea level. Dorchester sits on the highest elevation in all of North Texas. Dorchester sits dead center of the Golden Corridor. (The Golden Corridor is the ridge that runs from downtown Dallas to the Red River where some of the most expensive homes in Texas are built.)

From Dorchester the land slopes down hill in all directions. Dorchester is about 866 feet above sea level, where as the elevation of Dallas, Texas is at about 430 feet above sea level. The storm winds would blow the contamination down hill from Dorchester down to McKinney towards Dallas, across all those million dollar mansions built in the Golden Corridor. Dorchester sits on top of the hill right in the center of the Golden Corridor and the beginning of the watershed for the drinking water for most of all of Texas’ populated areas. The Trinity, The Red River and The Choctaw at Dorchester serves as the headwaters of the drinking waters for Texas and Southern Oklahoma. The prevailing winds would blow the contamination towards lake Texoma, The Arbuckles, Lake Murray, Durant, Sulfur, and Ardmore Oklahoma.

For TCEQ to even consider permitting a place like the cement kiln in Dorchester should be considered a heinous dereliction of duty, or even criminal corruption. For Dan Patrick and Greg Abbott to even consider allowing the TCEQ to permit such an enterprise should be grounds for their removal from office. Hold on…hold on… Hold on… Isn’t all this a bit way over melodramatic. May be. But, Dorchester is ground zero for the surface and subsurface drinking water for a major portion of the populated areas of the State of Texas, Southern Oklahoma AND several Native Indian Reservations. This makes what TCEQ is trying to permit is the potential contamination of interstate drinking water. So, this is no longer just a matter for the local TCEQ. This water crisis should be in the concern of Trump’s EPA enforcement. This Kiln potentially affects interstate drinking water.

The contamination risk will be extensive. Expect contamination from Frisco to McKinney to Ardmore, Oklahoma. Property values and property tax base will plummet. This does not even address the destruction of the economy due to the blasting strip mine destroying the silicon chip manufacturing industry being built less than five miles from the cement plant. Nor does this address the massive rail yard slated to be built in Gunter near Dorchester. The burn Kiln, the blasting pit mine and the extensive rail yard has the potential to destroy the health of the citizens, the economic future viability of the area, the property values, the property tax base potential of one of the futures most valuable land areas in all of Texas and possibly the whole country. Dorchester is slated to be the future center of the new Silicon Valley.

Our Migratory Birds, Our Drinking Water,

Our Breathable Air Must Be Protected