Waste Program Successes

Richardson Public Safety Campus - VCP 2926

The Richardson Public Safety Campus houses the new headquarters of the Richardson Fire and Police departments, as well as support buildings. It is located at the corner of Greenville Avenue and Belt Line Road and has been open since October 2019. The campus features a new 31,000 square foot fire station, a 71,000 square foot police facility, and a 7,000 square foot police support building. However, before this campus could be built, assessment and clean-up of environmental impacts related to the past uses of the site were necessary.

The property was formerly made up of several lots and was occupied by a variety of businesses including a strip mall, gas station, dry-cleaning facility, and an automotive repair facility.  The site entered the Voluntary Cleanup Program (VCP) in February 2018. The site was assessed for chemicals of concern (COCs) which included testing for total petroleum hydrocarbons (TPH), Resource Conservation Recovery Act (RCRA) metals, volatile organic compounds (VOCs), and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) in soil and groundwater. The underground storage tanks and hydraulic lifts associated with the gas station and auto repair facilities were removed, and soil borings and monitoring wells were installed to monitor the site during clean up and demolition. Approximately 4,500 tons of impacted soil was excavated and properly disposed off-site. The site received a VCP final certificate of completion for residential land use standards in 2021 which allowed for unrestricted use.

The new campus provides necessary public services to the rapidly growing city of Richardson. It contains training facilities for use by all departments, as well as dormitories for firefighters working overnight shifts. The Fire, Emergency Medical Services, and Police departments are all housed within one campus, allowing for better coordination between departments. The campus includes an open green space, the entrance to which features a 20-foot-tall police memorial sculpture. Other art installations are located throughout the campus, made possible through cooperation between the city’s Cultural Arts Commission, police and fire chiefs, and the local community. The work that the city completed under the oversight of the TCEQ Voluntary Cleanup Program helped take an underutilized brownfield property and turn it into a community resource.

The Richardson Public Safety Campus houses the new headquarters of the Richardson Fire and Police departments, as well as support buildings. It is located at the corner of Greenville Avenue and Belt Line Road and has been open since October 2019. The campus features a new 31,000 square foot fire station, a 71,000 square foot police facility, and a 7,000 square foot police support building. However, before this campus could be built, assessment and clean-up of environmental impacts related to the past uses of the site were necessary.

The property was formerly made up of several lots and was occupied by a variety of businesses including a strip mall, gas station, dry-cleaning facility, and an automotive repair facility.  The site entered the Voluntary Cleanup Program (VCP) in February 2018. The site was assessed for chemicals of concern (COCs) which included testing for total petroleum hydrocarbons (TPH), Resource Conservation Recovery Act (RCRA) metals, volatile organic compounds (VOCs), and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) in soil and groundwater. The underground storage tanks and hydraulic lifts associated with the gas station and auto repair facilities were removed, and soil borings and monitoring wells were installed to monitor the site during clean up and demolition. Approximately 4,500 tons of impacted soil was excavated and properly disposed off-site. The site received a VCP final certificate of completion for residential land use standards in 2021 which allowed for unrestricted use.

The new campus provides necessary public services to the rapidly growing city of Richardson. It contains training facilities for use by all departments, as well as dormitories for firefighters working overnight shifts. The Fire, Emergency Medical Services, and Police departments are all housed within one campus, allowing for better coordination between departments. The campus includes an open green space, the entrance to which features a 20-foot-tall police memorial sculpture. Other art installations are located throughout the campus, made possible through cooperation between the city’s Cultural Arts Commission, police and fire chiefs, and the local community. The work that the city completed under the oversight of the TCEQ Voluntary Cleanup Program helped take an underutilized brownfield property and turn it into a community resource.