Nearly 7,000 acres in Bowie County have been successfully remediated to meet commercial and industrial standards, according to TexAmericas Center. Official action by the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality removed the United States Army’s Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA) permit from the property and opens up the additional acreage to be used for development.

To be sure, this amount of land opens up opportunities for the largest players in almost any industry. To put it into perspective, 6,800 acres is the approximate size of 5,142 football fields, 7.5 times the size of Central Park, 40 times bigger than Disneyland and 65 times bigger than the Mall of America.

“This is a major milestone in the history of this organization and our region. It paves the way to advance opportunities that generate investments, create quality jobs and diversify the region’s tax base,” said Scott Norton, executive director/CEO, TexAmericas Center. “Removing this RCRA permit has been a long but critical process to ensure the availability of quality sites for our current and future tenants.”

The nearly 7,000 acres represented a portion of the former Lone Star Army Ammunition Plant property, which necessitated environmental remediation before development could be approved. The comprehensive remediation, which began in 2010 and was recently completed, required a lengthy process to ensure all standards and assurances were met correctly and completely.