ALESHIRELAW
A PROFESSIONAL CORPORATION

700 LAVACA STREET, SUITE 1400
AUSTIN, TEXAS 78701

Bill Aleshire

Bill@AleshireLAW.com
512 320-9155 (call) 512 320-9156 (fax)
_______________________________________________________
August 26, 2019
VIA EMAIL: Jose@workersdefense.org & info@workersdefense.org
Jose` P. Garza, Co-Director
Emily Tims, Co-Director
Workers Defense Project
5604 Manor Road
Austin, Texas 78723
Re:

Concerns About Hazardous Conditions at the McKalla Toxic Waste Site, Precourt
Soccer Stadium

Dear Mr. Garza and Ms. Tims,
Over the last several months, I represented Brian Rodgers, a well-known community
activist, in obtaining public records regarding the so-called “McKalla Site” where the planned
STADCO/Precourt soccer stadium is expected to be built. Because we understand that
groundbreaking is to occur soon, and because of what the public records reveal, I am writing you
with an urgent request that the Workers Defense Project (WDP) review the attached evidence and
speak out about the risks involved to workers in that upcoming excavation of this toxic waste site.
In response to several public information requests, we obtained thousands of pages of
records about the McKalla site and the stadium plans from the City of Austin and TCEQ. As you
may know, this site is a former toxic waste site previously owned by Reichhold Chemical
Company, a company notorious for the number of Superfund sites and violations. While operating
there in 1985, an explosion occurred that destroyed Reichhold’s ability to continue its operation.
The City of Austin, using Austin Water Utility funds, bought the site in the late 1990’s to use a
utility lay-down area and staging area. Supposedly, the site had been remediated, according to
TCEQ. But in November, 2003, AWU employees were digging on the site with a backhoe and hit
one or more barrels of BPO which exploded when the chemical was exposed to the air, seriously
injuring 5 AWU employees. So, the City engaged TCEQ in another remediation attempt, and
hired Shaw Environmental, Inc. to oversee it, using water utility revenue for the remediation work,
resulting in millions of dollars of AWU revenue being spent on the site. It is important to note that
Shaw did not excavate and remediate the entire site, and they did not remove polluted soil, but
screened it and put the soil back in place! (Shaw Report attaced).
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 Despite this history, the City Council decided to lease the toxic waste site to Precourt for a
for-profit, but tax-free MLS soccer stadium. This is ironic considering that, just last week, the
MLS stadium site in Miami was put on hold after the discovery of high levels of arsenic and other
pollutants on that site. (see attached 8/21/2019 CNBC report). One wonders if MLS finds toxic
waste sites to hold some attraction for soccer stadiums. After the Lease was signed, Precourt hired
Terracon Consultants, Inc. to conduct a geotechnical analysis of the site. We got a copy of that
report (attached).
Brian Rodgers and others opposed this lease, particularly because this is an AWU asset and
water customers should be reimbursed, but also because of concerns for worker and neighborhood
safety. After we obtained thousands of public records about conditions there and the Lease, we
were overwhelmed with trying to make sense of the toxic waste terms and implications. So, I
sought a review of the records by Barrett D. Allison with Environmental & Planning Associates,
Inc. I was familiar with Mr. Allison and his expertise in environmental matters from my County
Judge days, when, frankly Mr. Allison and I were in a generally adversarial relationship. I trusted
that he would tell me the plain truth about what the records show. He did.
I have attached his report. One of the most significant findings concerns the Terracon
recommendation that, despite purported remediation of the site, “high hazard” excavation
procedures be used for any excavation occurring on the site, as was used by Shaw in their work in
2003-2004. We just found out that on August 12, 2019, the City of Austin issued a Site Plan
Permit that does not appear to incorporate the Shaw/Terracon high hazard excavation procedures
for the protection of the workers who will soon begin excavation on site. We don’t even know if
the Precourt workers have been told about the toxic history of this site, whether they have been
given any special hazardous waste site training, or whether they are being provided the protective
equipment and procedures as recommended by the consultants hired by the City and Precourt. The
Shaw/Terracon recommended high hazard procedures are:
Major equipment to be ... equipped with a Lexan™ blast shield, and
supplied [with breathing] air bottle rack, a frame mounted mobile Lexan TM blast
shield for the spotter, Level B personnel protective equipment (PPE) and necessary
support equipment, flame resistant clothing, a pollution control truck, radio
communicators, a crew pick-up truck, Combustion Gas Indicator (CGI), photo
ionization detector (PIO), real time respirable dust monitors (PRAM) and other
personnel monitoring equipment, perimeter air monitoring equipment, remote
thermal sensor, and video camera. Temporary fencing, barricades, or barrier tape
around the excavation area will be installed as required by the HASP.
To us, such safety standards for workers are justified, considering that there is good reason
to doubt whether this site has been fully and properly remediated of the toxic waste conditions and
whether there remains a risk of harm to workers, neighborhood, and the environment with the work
planned for this site. For example, on November 30, 2019—when Terracon was getting ready to
start boring holes, Greg Kiloh wrote:
When it comes to excavation, I think the areas that deserve some caution are the
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 rectangular pads north of Shaw’s general limit of excavation line, that were
excluded from the excavation (labeled ‘6’). (see attached).
In addition, as the site review of the stadium construction plans were being reviewed and
disclosed on the City’s development permit website, in an email on April 12, 2019, City engineer
Leslie Daniel wrote, “I deleted 33 PAGES of WQ [water quality] comments before I posted
[comments to AMANDA, the permit website].” What were those comments, and has pollution of
water from the stadium excavation and construction work been given the attention it deserves?
The bottom line is that politics, not science or common-sense or transparency, is driving
this soccer stadium on a toxic waste site at full speed. We are concerned that not only the
environment is endangered. Based on the Shaw/Terracon recommendations, we are worried that
workers on the site are going to be at serious risk of harm. We hope you will review the attached
material, obtain any other information you consider needed, and let us know what action or help
the Workers Defense Project believes is needed.

ALESHIRELAW, PC

______________________________

Bill Aleshire
Cc:

Brian Rodgers

Attached:
1
2
3
4
5
6
7

2019-8-22 Environmental & Planning Assoc Report on McKalla Site
SHAW Report 2003
2019_0214_Terracon_-_Final_Geotechnical_Report w-out appendix
2019-8-12 Site Plan Approval
2018-11-30 Kiloh email - caution excluded areas
2019-4-12 email Deleted 33 pages before Amanda
David Beckham's MLS Miami stadium site highly contaminated with arsenic

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