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April 20, 2015

Environmental Headlines for the Houston Region: April 20, 2015

Featured

  1. County Attorney appeals trial court rulings in San Jacinto Waste Pits case (The Poutpourri, 4/17/2015)
    “Harris County Attorney Vince Ryan today appealed trial court rulings in the case involving the contamination of the San Jacinto River. County Attorney Ryan filed a Notice of Appeal in the case of Harris County and the State of Texas v. International Paper. The case involves the contamination of the river by International Paper’s predecessor Champion Paper in the 1960s, when Champion’s Pasadena Mill disposed of dioxin-laced paper mill waste in pits dug on the river bank… The case was tried in October 2014, with a group of companies settling with Harris County and the State for $29.2 million before the jury returned its verdict. The County is appealing on the grounds that the jury was not permitted to hear key evidence from experts and witnesses who live and work near the river. ”
    www.yourhoustonnews.comCEC Note: EPA is hosting an information open house about the Superfund Site on April 30, 2015, in Channelview.
  2. Scientists Are Flying Over Texas Oil and Gas Fields To Measure Air Pollution (Mose Buchele – StateImpact, 4/13/2015)
    “A team of scientists from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration – NOAA – has been circling over Texas, gathering data. The flights are part of a project to find out exactly how emissions from the state’s sprawling oil and gas fields pollute the air we breathe… The project tracks things like the excessive production of ozone, which has adverse affects on human health, and methane, a greenhouse gas far more potent than even carbon dioxide. One thing they want to know is what fraction of the stuff being extracted really just ends up in the atmosphere — that’s called the ‘leak rate.’ It changes from oil field to oil field.”
    http://stateimpact.npr.org
  3. Checking in on The State of Houston’s Environment.
    (Houston Matters, KPFT, 4/17/2015)
    We continue our week-long series exploring “The State of Houston” with a conversation about the environment in Greater Houston. We talk with News 88.7 Energy and Environment Reporter Dave Fehling. We discuss concerns about clean air and clean water, new efforts to monitor chemical releases, ongoing disputes over landfills and other encroachment of our urban landscape into the rural landscape that surrounds it, and concerns about the impact of fracking (including earthquakes reported in North Texas, and the repercussions of the Denton fracking ban). We also talk about Houston’s recycling program and discuss other efforts to reduce carbon emissions in a community reliant on industry.
    www.houstonmatters.org
  4. Earth-Friendly Parking Lots Now a Reality with TrueGrid Permeable Pavement (University Chronicle, 4/15/2015)
    “New pavement solution made of 100-percent post-consumer recycled content reduces runoff, protects groundwater. Houston-based toy inventor Barry Stiles is the creative mind behind a new type of permeable pavement — one that significantly raises the bar for parking lots everywhere. Traditionally paved parking spaces are sites of major stormwater runoff. Because water cannot penetrate pervious pavements like asphalt and concrete, it instead runs across the surface, ultimately posing a danger to the quality of groundwater supplies and local ecosystems. However, parking lots can be made significantly eco-friendlier with the installation of TrueGrid, a plastic paving system that is 98 percent permeable — thus allowing water to absorb directly into the ground rather than running off the surface of the pavement.”
    www.ssuchronicle.com

EcoNotes

  • 18 April
    • Metro Delays Opening Of Houston’s Two New Light Rail Lines (Gail Delaughter – Houston Public Media)
      www.houstonpublicmedia.org
  • 17 April
  • 16 April
    • Organic Groups Fight for Clean Compost (Katherine Proctor – Courthouse News Service)
      www.courthousenews.com
    • Checking in on The State of Houston’s Environment (Michael Hagerty – Houston Matters)
      www.houstonmatters.org
    • Nuclear reactor ship to start journey from Va. to Galveston (Harvey Rice – Houston Chronicle)
      www.houstonchronicle.com
    • From The Toilet to the Tap The Future of Water is Here (The Spirit of Arkansas)
      www.katv.com
    • U.S. sued to curb deaths of sea turtles by shrimping industry (Barbara Liston – Planet Ark News)
      http://planetark.org
    • Ten Ways Your City Can Go Solar (Environment Texas)
      www.environmenttexas.org
  • 15 April
    • 10th Anniversary of Earth Day Houston: A Growing Success in Making Houston a Greener, More Sustainable City (airCurrent News)
      http://airalliancehouston.org
    • Houston’s Bike Plan in a Nut Shell. (BikeHouston)
      www.bikehouston.org
    • Commentary: Charting a new future for the Gulf of Mexico (Laura Huffman – Houston Chronicle)
      www.houstonchronicle.com
    • Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center donates saplings from historic trees to Precinct 4 (The Kingwood Observer)
      www.yourhoustonnews.com
    • Earth-Friendly Parking Lots Now a Reality with TrueGrid Permeable Pavement (University Chronicle)
      www.ssuchronicle.com
    • Demonstrators Take To BP Headquarters On Anniversary Of Oil Spill (Syeda Hasan – Houston Public Media)
      www.houstonpublicmedia.org
    • Big Sit! an Easy Fun Way to Compete in Great Texas Birding Classic (Texas Parks & Wildlife)
      http://tpwd.texas.gov
    • EPA Mobile Lab Screens Austin Residents’ Soil (Newsroom America)
      www.newsroomamerica.com
    • Researchers Testing Air Pollution Over Fracking Sites (Andy Szal – Manufacturing News)
      www.manufacturing.net
    • Democrats Cave on Measure Overturning Fracking Regulations (Priscila Mosqueda – Texas Observer)
      www.texasobserver.org
    • Shark Fin Ban Back on the House Menu (Ryan McCrimmon – The Texas Tribune)
      www.texastribune.org
  • 14 April
    • Texas Residents Worried Dioxin Could be Causing Cancer Cluster (Susan Carroll, Houston Chronicle – Chem Info)
      www.chem.info
    • As Deadline Nears for Texas Haze Rule, A Look at How Lawsuits Shape Regulation (Mose Buchele – StateImpact)
      http://stateimpact.npr.org
    • TPPF: Federal government continues to limit energy production in Texas (Leigh Thompson – MRT)
      www.mrt.com
  • 13 April
  • 12 April
    • Sex, Drugs and Plant Biology: Why Much of Texas is Covered in Green Gunk (Mose Buchele – StateImpact)
      http://stateimpact.npr.org
  • 11 April
    • Despite Rocky Start, Agriculture Chief Defends Record (Jay Root and Jim Malewitz – The Texas Tribune)
      www.texastribune.org
  • 10 April
    • Hundreds of UH Volunteers Work to Keep Houston Beautiful April 11 (Melissa Carroll – University of Houston)
      www.uh.edu
  • 9 April
  • 8 April
    • Environmental group says appeals court ruling on EPA ‘dead zone’ strategy not all bad news (Mark Schleifstein – NOLA News)
      www.nola.com
  • 7 April
    • EPA Releases New Website Enabling the Public to Track Compliance Status of Public Water Systems (EPA News)
      http://yosemite.epa.gov
  • 6 April
    • UH Researchers Discover N-Type Polymer for Fast Organic Battery
      (Jeannie Kever – University of Houston News)
      www.uh.edu
    • Proposed Law Would Allow Houston To Regulate Mountains Of Coal (Dave Fehling – Houston Public Media)
      www.houstonpublicmedia.org
    • My Top 5: Air Alliance’s Sara DeMers Heald (365 Things To Do In Houston)
      http://365thingsinhouston.com
  • 4 April
    • First ‘Bayou Greenway Day’ highlights Houston’s waterways (Katherine Driessen – Houston Chronicle)
      http://m.chron.com
  • 2 April
  • 31 March
    • Work Begins To Create Plan To Turn Astrodome Into Giant Park (Pat Hernandez – Houston Public Media)
      www.houstonpublicmedia.org
    • Your Household’s Garbage And Houston’s Leaking Landfills (Dave Fehling – Houston Public Media)
      www.houstonpublicmedia.org
    • Legislation Aims to Boost Electricity Conservation (Jim Malewitz – The Texas Tribune)
      www.texastribune.org
  • 30 March
    • UH Students ‘Unfold’ Innovative Maps of Houston (Mike Emery – University of Houston)
      www.uh.edu
  • 27 March
    • Biking through downtown Houston just got easier thanks to new protected green lane (Nikki Ndukwe – Culture Map Houston)
      http://houston.culturemap.com
    • Rockefeller family tried and failed to get ExxonMobil to accept climate change (Suzanne Goldenberg – The Guardian)
      www.theguardian.com