"One of America’s largest shingle makers is pumping pollution into Black and brown communities from Texas to Minnesota"
"A year ago, Alap Dave found his dream house on Singleton Avenue in West Dallas. When he went to see the house for the first time, he noticed a shingle factory across the street, but he couldn’t smell any pollutants or toxins.
After he moved in, he noticed that when the facility, owned by GAF Roofing, started up, it released fumes into the air that stung his nostrils. “It’s like rotten eggs and sewage combined,” Dave says. “It’s worse than any of my old stinky soccer cleats.” Asphalt is a type of crude oil byproduct—a thick, tarlike substance that’s mixed with other products. It’s mainly used to make shingles and pave roads. According to an analysis by Paul Quinn College’s Urban Research Initiative, in 2022, GAF was one of the largest sources of sulfur dioxide pollution in Dallas County and the fifth-largest polluter overall.
Dave is new to the neighborhood, but since the GAF plant has been operating for nearly a century, some residents have been breathing those fumes for their entire lives. And they’ve paid the price. A recent public health study conducted by Texas A&M University found that residents near the plant are exposed to some of the worst particulate matter pollution in the Dallas area. Asthma rates here are five times the statewide average. Rates of respiratory illness, like COPD, are also elevated here.
For Dave, a climate organizer with the Sunrise Movement, moving to Singleton Avenue was a crash course in environmental justice. He quickly connected with Janie Cisneros, the founder of Singleton United/Unidos—a grassroots group that’s been pushing to get GAF out of the neighborhood for years. “In advocacy with Sunrise, it looked like going to City Hall and speaking with staff,” he says. “Working with Janie, we went door to door, [knocking] on people’s doors to talk about the impacts of the plant.”"
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