Sanchez: Stop the Dust. Shut Milwhite down altogether.

3 months ago 102

BROWNSVILLE, Texas – Valley Interfaith member Adhlemy Sanchez says she has concluded that Milwhite Incorporated should be shutdown altogether.

Previously, Sanchez supported having Milwhite moved to a site at the Port of Brownsville, which the Greater Brownsville Incentives Corporation favored.

Sanchez is a community leader in the 250-home Villa del Rey Subdivision II of Brownsville, which is located next door to Milwhite’s mineral processing plant on South Padre Island Highway.

Milwhite has been sued by the State of Texas for allegedly violating the Texas Clean Air Act. It has also been sued by the City of Brownsville, which claims it is conducting heavy industrial activities at its plant while only having permission for light industrial work. Residents have sued the company for the dust and noise its plant creates. And Milwhite’s own insurers have also file a suit against the company.

“They (Milwhite) have not come through with doing the bare minimum of fixing the violations that they have (such as) the fire inspection codes (and) bringing their permits up to date. They have not paid any of their fines. So that conversation (of Milwhite relocating) is probably not on the table anymore and I would actually be against that,” Sanchez said, in an exclusive interview with the Rio Grande Guardian.

“I feel that they need to be responsible and be held accountable for everything they’ve done to this point. And the impact that they’ve made in the whole community of over 250 homes in just our area, not to mention, perhaps, an even larger diameter within a five-mile circumference. So, I feel that that they should just be responsible and pay the consequences and be shut down. They should not be allowed to operate.”

The Guardian wanted to catch up with Sanchez to find out where things are at with all the lawsuits against Milwhite. Here is a video recording of the interview: