Dallas – The Dallas City Council today approved a mutual aid agreement that would allow Dallas to send equipment and personnel to help the City of Houston with Hurricane Harvey cleanup efforts, if needed. 

Two weeks ago, Houston asked Dallas if they could provide such assistance.  In response, the City of Dallas quickly moved to organize a multi-department Response Team, with equipment and resources for such an effort.  Yesterday, the City of Houston relayed positive news to Dallas that they are making meaningful progress in their Hurricane Harvey debris removal efforts and the assistance of the City of Dallas is not needed at this time.

According to City of Houston officials, increased support from private contractors, along with their own resources, is allowing Houston to provide the level of debris removal assistance currently needed.  As a result, changes to large waste (brush and bulky) collection service in the City of Dallas are not need at this time. 
 
Under the mutual aid agreement approved today, the City of Dallas was prepared to commit approximately 35 percent of its Sanitation Services large waste (brush and bulky) collections teams to the City of Houston.  If those collection teams had been deployed, Dallas would have asked residents to voluntarily make changes to the type and amounts of debris set out for monthly bulk and brush collection.   But again, these changes are not needed at this time.
 
Dallas Sanitation Services director Kelly High said, “Today’s action by the City Council allows us to be there if Houston needs us.  But it’s good to hear they don’t, because that means they are making important progress.  And that’s a good thing.”