Old Landfill Jeopardizes Graham Development’s Austin Project

An East Austin landfill that closed decades ago has become the unlikely roadblock to one of the city’s most ambitious mixed-use projects.

Graham Development is suing Travis County after officials denied its plan to relocate an auto scrapyard to a 42-acre site at 9500 East U.S. Highway 290 — a former landfill that stopped accepting waste in 1982 but allegedly still leaks toxins into nearby soil and water, the Austin Business Journal reported.

The Austin-based firm needs the scrapyard, LKQ Auto Salvage, off its South Congress Avenue property in order to move forward with a planned 43-acre project that would deliver more than 1,200 apartments, 210,000 square feet of offices, and 136,000 square feet of retail. The development would be positioned next to where Capital Metropolitan Transportation Authority is building a new Orange Line rail route.

The problem: LKQ’s lease at 7900 South Congress Avenue runs until 2036. Without relocating it, Graham’s transit-oriented project is stuck in limbo. The developer and the landfill’s owner, Moo Moo Meadows, filed a lawsuit July 31 in federal court, arguing the county exceeded its authority when it blocked the scrapyard relocation and claiming the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality — not the county — should decide land use questions for closed landfills.

The suit also accused Travis County of decades of neglect, saying the landfill has been leaking hazardous leachate into the ground since the 1960s and still tests positive for unsafe levels of arsenic, barium and lead. Graham alleges the county is using the contamination as a “bludgeon” to stifle development.

County officials pushed back, pointing to ongoing cooperation with TCEQ and past efforts to address the landfill. Travis County commissioners voted unanimously in August 2023 to deny the scrapyard move, citing risks to human health and environmental safety.

The stakes go beyond legal wrangling. The South Congress project could reshape a corridor already under heavy development pressure, bringing both density and affordable housing to a rapidly growing part of the city. But until the scrapyard has left the vision on ice.

— Eric Weilbacher