Hudspeth County officials issued a disaster declaration last week in response to a “large-scale” fire and “ongoing smoldering” caused by an unlikely source — approximately 50,000 to 100,000 tons of discarded pecan shells.
“I’m not a professional on pecan shells,” said the county’s Emergency Management Coordinator Samuel Carr. “But essentially, what I know is there was moisture in the pecans, and they piled them up so high that it created heat. Much like you would have like a hay bale that was bailed too wet and caught fire — same principle.”
The combustion of the pecan shells resulted in plumes of thick white smoke, Carr said. The organic waste, which came from El Paso County pecan farms, was dumped on property owned by the Texas General Land Office (GLO) near the small community of Esperanza along I-10.
Carr said the fire’s expanse was isolated, taking up less than a quarter acre, but its proximity to the highway, and the potential for the smoke to decrease visibility on the major roadway, prompted the disaster declaration.
“If that wind shifts north, then it had a possibility of shutting down I-10,” he said.
The county also wrote in a press release that the poor air quality resulting from the heavy smoke could pose “health risks” to residents and travelers in addition to harmful environmental impacts. The fire was a weeks-long event.
A GLO spokesperson said the agency had entered into a short-term agreement with the Texas Department of Agriculture (TDA) to place pecan shells on the land for a one-year period to help mitigate the red flour beetle population, a pest plaguing pecan growers near El Paso. Carr said the county was not initially aware of the plan, but the state agencies have since stepped in to clean up the situation.
“We came out to the site and realized that it was a pretty big plume of smoke emitting from the pile, so that's when we started calling all the three letter agencies,” he said.
The GLO spokesperson said the pecan shell haulers contracted by the TDA have since spread the shell piles out and they are no longer generating smoke. The Texas Department of Emergency Management is also involved in the clean up. As of Tuesday morning, Carr said occasional small patches of smoke are still appearing but the county is working with state agencies to ensure no major plumes erupt.
On Thursday, the county is set to discuss whether or not to renew the disaster declaration it issued on November 12. Carr said an extension may be not needed given the state agencies “have a pretty good plan, to our satisfaction, to get it fixed.”
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