Landowner faulting Travis County over environmental concerns in closed landfill

AUSTIN (KXAN) — The landowner of a closed landfill off U.S. Highway 290 is aiming to take legal action against Travis County over its “substantial endangerment to the environment and the public” of the management of the property according to a notice of intent (NOI) to Travis County.

Travis County operated this landfill from 1968 until its closure in 1982. According to the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA), a past operator of a disposal faciality can be held liable for environmental hazards contributed from past waste management activities.

The NOI details that there are “ongoing releases” of leachate—a liquid that is often hazardous and comes from several substances of trash—from the closed landfill. The state of Texas has already sued Travis County over this issue in May.

The current landowner, Moo Moo Meadows, acquired the property in 2024. Moo Moo Meadows’ is represented by Environmental Attorney Jim Blackburn.

“I have never encountered a problem like the leachate problem that exists at the Travis County landfill that I have spent in about a 50-year career as an environmental lawyer in Texas,” Blackburn said. “[The leachate] is literally leaking into a tributary like Walnut Creek, which has public access and park space downstream.”

Moo Moo Meadows contracted an environmental consulting firm to assess the environmental conditions at the landfill in 2024. The firm reported that they found leachate contained hazardous substances like arsenic, barium and lead that exceed Environmental Protect Agency’s (EPA) safety limits.

Contaminant	EPA Maximum Contaminant Level (MCL)	Amount found at landfill in leachate samples
Arsenic	0.01 mg/L	0.034 mg/L
Barium	2.0 mg/L	3.9 mg/L
Lead	0.015 mg/L	0.11 mg/L

“That leachate—you know kind of amazingly—has been going on for decades and has never really ever been stopped,” Blackburn said.

In 1973, prior to the facility’s closure, a letter was sent from the then director of Austin-Travis County Health Services Division saying they discovered leachate a on the landfill. The letter detailed that the leachate formed due to an “inadequate cover” and is posing a “water pollution hazard” for creeks nearby.

In 1977, Travis County came up with a compliance plan to fix such issues. The plan laid out ways to implement a better and monitor drainage. Blackburn said those concerns still exist in present day.

KXAN reached out to Travis County about the alleged issues at the landfill, and they replied with this statement to our inquiry:

Travis County has been productively working and cooperating with the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ) to address the closed landfill and will continue to do so. Travis County’s commitment to protect our environment is evident by the policies and actions taken by this and previous Commissioners Courts. They have been good stewards of our natural resources and remain focused on preserving Travis County’s natural resources for generations to come.

Hector Nieto, Travis County spokesperson

Blackburn emphasizes that the issues at the landfill need to be addressed sooner rather than later.

“We just want to get this leakage stopped. We want to get the cap repaired, and we want to establish our property rights as soon as we can,” Blackburn said.