Council member Laura Rummel said during a Jan. 7 Frisco City Council meeting that state lawmakers would add Exide Plant cleanup efforts to the budget discussions when the 89th Legislature convenes Jan. 14.
What you need to know
The Exide Plant is an abandoned Exide Technologies battery recycling center located near Preston Road and Fifth Street. It was officially shut down in 2012 after a series of environmental concerns from both the local and federal government.
The plant is almost directly connected to the land that will become The Community Hub for Grand Park, a roughly 300-acre piece of the overall land that follows Stewart Creek from Main Street in Frisco to Lewisville Lake.
Rummel said the city is being more proactive in asking for help from the legislature than it has been in previous years.
“We will hopefully see Exide funding this year, which we did not see last legislative session,” Rummel said.
State Rep. Jared Patterson said during a Jan. 8 Frisco Legislative Power Hour that legislators would work to clean the plant and “get Grand Park up and running.”
How we got here
Before closing, the Exide Plant operated from 1969-2012, recycling millions of automotive and industrial batteries per year. The city of Frisco and the Community Development Corporation took ownership of 102 acres of the Exide property in October 2020 to gain control of the cleanup process, which has been ongoing since the plant shut down.
Cleaning the Exide Plant land is a process that includes removing contaminated soil, broken battery casings and “slag,” the waste formed when lead is recovered from used batteries.
Stay tuned
The 89th Legislature will hold its first meeting on Jan. 14.
