Harris County Sues to Close Carverdale's Hawthorn Park Landfill for Good
The county says methane and groundwater pollution at the Waste Management site justify permanent closure. Neighbors want testing. The company says it follows state rules.
For years, people in Carverdale have asked a simple question about the landfill down the road: what is in the ground, and is it getting into our water? On Tuesday, Harris County took that question to federal court.
County Attorney Abbie Kamin's office filed suit Oct. 13 against USA Waste of Texas Landfills Inc., the Waste Management subsidiary that operates the Hawthorn Park landfill on Tanner Road in the northwest Houston neighborhood, the Houston Chronicle reported. The county wants the site closed for good and put into post-closure care, with groundwater sampling, a permanent cap and long-term monitoring.
What the county alleges
These are allegations. None has been proven in court, and the company has not been found liable for anything.
The lawsuit accuses the company of being "unable or unwilling to control the methane emitting from the Hawthorn Landfill" and of resisting "the county's efforts to determine what contaminants are present in the soil and water," according to the Chronicle.
Kamin told KPRC 2 that "test results at the property line have regularly exceeded methane limits," and she named chlorobenzene, barium and arsenic among substances found in testing near the property. The county believes the landfill is contributing to groundwater pollution and wants more testing to find out.
"Harris County, I want to be clear, has never been allowed on to the property to test for pollutants," Kamin said.
The suit is brought under the federal Resource Conservation and Recovery Act. Commissioners Court approved filing it on June 11, according to the court's agenda record, and the county attorney's office sent a formal notice of intent to sue to the company, the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality and the EPA in July, according to the county attorney's announcement.
These are allegations. None of them has been proven in court.
What the company says
Waste Management told KPRC 2 it does not comment on pending litigation. In July, the company said the facility "is monitored, inspected, and tested by both WM and TCEQ in accordance with applicable regulatory requirements." Company spokeswoman Lisa Doughty said this summer that the landfill has the environmental protection systems required by the state and "for decades it has provided compliant and responsible disposal services for communities, businesses and industries serving Harris County," the Chronicle reported.
The company's website describes Hawthorn Park as a Type IV construction and demolition landfill that takes debris such as lumber, brick, concrete and yard waste, and does not take household garbage or hazardous waste, according to KPRC 2.
How it got here
Kamin said the landfill was first permitted in 1977, though dumping happened there before that, and the county says it covers more than 150 acres. A Waste Management subsidiary took it over in the 1990s, according to the Chronicle.
In a contested case before the TCEQ, the county joined residents and a developer in fighting the company's plan to expand the landfill's footprint and height, and the company withdrew that request, the county attorney's office said. But the office also noted the existing permit "does not carry a fixed renewal deadline and can remain valid for decades."
"The withdrawal of the expansion permit was a critical win, but it does not close this landfill," the office said in July.
There is one loose end the public record does not tie up. TCEQ records cited by KPRC 2 show an investigation dated Nov. 12, 2025, listing an alleged violation for denying county investigators access to inspect the site. The agency marked it resolved Aug. 5, 2026, citing the county's request to dismiss a claim against the company "without prejudice," which leaves the door open to bring it again. The record does not say why the county dropped that claim, and TCEQ did not explain when asked by the station.
The people next door
Iesheia Ayers-Wilson has lived all 46 years of her life in Carverdale, about a block from the landfill. "Let's start getting these tests done. Let's start seeing if this has an effect on our health," she told KPRC 2. "After you give us the transparency, we would like accountability in some kind of resolve."
Pastor Calvin Smith of Saint James Missionary Baptist Church said residents have fought the dump for years and felt unheard. He was honest that no link between the landfill and illnesses in the neighborhood has been established. He wants it investigated anyway. "We have a right to raise our children healthy like anybody else," Smith said. Asked once why he did not simply move, he said, "I shouldn't have to move."
That is a fair point, and an old one. A neighborhood should not have to prove it is sick before anyone checks the water. Testing is how you find out who is right, and if the site is clean, the company should welcome the chance to show it.
What comes next
If the county wins, Kamin said, the operator would pay for closure and monitoring, and it would be "much harder for the company to reopen or expand a permit on this site in the future." The land would stay private property. She warned the case will not be quick. "This is not an overnight process," she said.
Dock Line has written before about pollution you cannot see and about the state of the region's groundwater.
Hero photo: Blair Pittman / U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Documerica, via National Archives and Wikimedia Commons, Public domain.
