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Tuloso Road residents clear the air about living near a man-made dust storm

Clearing the air: Tuloso Road residents say they're living in a dust storm
Tuloso road dust 2 0903.jpg
Tuloso Road dust 0903.jpg
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CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas — Some residents who live in a neighborhood near Tuloso Road say they are living in the middle of a dust storm. But this one is man-made and they blame a nearby storage company.

The company is called Mini Solutions, and neighbors say they're moving around large shipping containers on a dirt-covered lot. They say it's not only loud, but they're also concerned about their health.

"We're inside the house and we're asleep and we can hear loud banging," said Fred Luna, a nearby resident.

There's also unwanted dust covering just about everything in homeowner's yards, from the cars to the trees and their windows.

"The grass was white, the trees, the tree limbs, (and) the flowers," said Luna.

Many neighbors like Luna even say the dust causes breathing problems.

"We can't even come out in our yards because of all the dust," said Luna.

Luna has lived in the neighborhood for nearly 40 years and noticed the dust storms about three months ago. One neighbor even filed a complaint with TCEQ, who determined there was no health hazard.

These neighbors disagreed so they turned to Councilman Everett Roy to clear the air.

"It appears that the city, we did a special permit to allow them to operate in that container yard about a year ago," said Roy.

It turns out, the company did not meet the requirements for that special permit, so a renewal was recently denied. Now it's just a matter of time until they no longer operate there.

"They've (the company) since then notified the city staff that their intention is that they are going to vacate that property and move," said Roy.

KRIS 6 also spoke to the manager of the company and asked him if he knew about the residents' complaints. He said he had no comment.

The company has about a year to move to another location. Meanwhile, they will have to comply with code enforcement rules during that time.