Cox v. City of Dallas, Texas

For over 25 years, there had been two sites in residential areas of Dallas used for illegal dumping of solid waste, the Deepwood and South Loop 12 dumps. The City of Dallas (defendant) received many complaints from residents concerning the illegal dumping. At one point, the city sued the owners of Deepwood for operating an illegal dump site, but the site continued operating. The city also contracted with a company, Dallas Demolition, for demolition work without specifying how the city’s waste materials should be disposed, and Dallas Demolition dumped at the Deepwood dump. This dumping continued even after the city’s attorneys became aware. More recently, the State of Texas inspected the Deepwood dump site and noted massive illegal dumping, including dumping of asbestos, benzene, and medical waste. There was an imminent threat of discharge of solid waste into a bordering creek, and toxic waste posed a risk of contaminating surface and ground water. The Deepwood dump had twice caught fire, and it required significant clean-up efforts. As to South Loop 12, the city had in the past used it as a landfill but had failed to appropriately bury the waste. No corrective action to clean the dump had ever been taken, and South Loop 12 remained an open dump. Both South Loop 12 and Deepwood were easily accessible to children and presented significant fire and health hazards. Residents adjoining the dumps (plaintiffs) sued the City of Dallas under the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act seeking injunctive relief to stop illegal open dumping on the sites and to remove the solid waste. The district court granted the injunction, and the city appealed.