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Environmental News Update 7/7/01 COALITION NOTES TAEP Meeting Scheduled The Texas Association of Environmental Professionals will meet jointly with other environmental organizations on July 10 for a presentation entitled An Update on Region 12’s Multimedia Programs and Initiatives. The speakers will be managers from the Texas Natural Resource Conservation Commission’s Region 12 air, water, and waste programs. This meeting will be at Brady’s Landing Restaurant, located at 8505 Cypress Street off of Broadway near the Houston Ship Channel. Registration and a social hour begin at 5:30 pm; a buffet dinner will be served at 6:15 followed by the presentation. The cost of the meeting is $20 for TAEP members and $25 for others. Reservations should be made to reservations@taep.org by July 9. People to the Parks Tour of Brazos Bend The Park People’s Projects Committee and other park enthusiasts will tour areas of Brazos Bend State Park on Saturday, October 27. This 5,000 acres park is located just 40 miles from downtown Houston and is home to tall grass prairie, bottom land hardwood forest and aquatic ecosystems. The tour, which costs $10 per person or $40 per family, includes bus transportation from Houston, a guest speaker on the history of the park, and lunch. For more information and reservations, contact The Park People at 713-942-7275. LOCAL 12 Ozone Days So Far this Year The Houston-Galveston region has exceeded the federally designated 1-hour ground level ozone standard on 12 days so far this year, according to Texas Natural Resource Conservation Commission data. The highest reading was 175 parts per billion on May 25. For details, visit http://www.tnrcc.state.tx.us/cgi-bin/monops/ozone_exceedance. Students Report Ozone Data The results are in from a recent air quality study completed by area students. On April 30 through May 4, 67 area schools, coordinated by the Rice Model Science Lab as part of the Clean Air Challenge, surveyed the ground level ozone near their schools. Students performed a one-hour ozone test using EcoStrips, which change color depending on the amount of ozone present, at the same time every day for a week. Although ozone levels were relatively low that week, some readings were considered “Unhealthy” by Environmental Protection Agency standards. The complete results are available online at http://www.clair.org/survey.htm. Bayport, Continued The Army Corps of Engineers has rescheduled the release of its environmental impact statement on the proposed Ned. S. Holmes Bayport Container Terminal in Galveston Bay to October 3. The Corps plans to hold a public information workshop on October 16 because of the complexity of the issues surrounding the project, and a public hearing on November 15. Locations for the events are yet to be announced. The comment period is scheduled to run for three months, until January 4. The Galveston Bay Conservation and Preservation Association (GBCPA) hopes to gather thousands of citizens at the public hearing to speak out against Bayport, which they say will increase traffic congestion and air pollution, decrease property values, and destroy the quality of life in the area. For more information on the fight against Bayport, visit http://www.gbcpa.org. Day of Action Against ExxonMobil Activists are currently organizing local events as part of the International Day of Action against ExxonMobil on Wednesday, July 11. There will be a protest at the ExxonMobil Service Station, 3800 Westheimer and Weslayan from 11:30 am to 1:30 pm. Organizers ask that people park across street at Central Market. Participants will ask ExxonMobil to support the Kyoto Protocol, which would reduce CO2 emission levels; stop pushing for drilling in the Arctic Refuge and on other public lands; agree to an investigation by an international human rights tribunal and abide by it’s findings; and cease all new exploration and invest that money in renewable resources. For more information, email chickpea@hotmail.com or YAPAR@aol.com. To learn more about it the international campaign, visit http://www.pressurepoint.org and http://www.campaignexxonmobil.org. RAQPC Enforceable Commitment Subcommittee to Meet The Regional Air Quality Planning Committee (RAQPC) Enforceable Commitment Subcommittee will meet Tuesday, July 10 from 3 – 5 pm at 3555 Timmons Lane, 2nd floor, Conference Room C. The meeting aims to discuss the goals, objectives and priorities for the subcommittee, while seeking input from the members. This meeting will also examine how the projected emission reductions for enforceable commitments compare with work done by ENVIRON and discuss potential future work by consultants. Finally, the meeting will look at the timeline. For more information, call Lily Wells at 713-993-4537, Karl Pepple at 713-993-4583, or Rob Barrett at 713-920-2831. STATE Padre Protest Scheduled The Lone Star Chapter of the Sierra Club and others are organizing a demonstration, eco-tour, and beach clean-up on Padre National Seashore on August 17-19. The group is protesting a proposal to establish a U.S. Navy and Marine Corps training ground and live fire range on 220,000 acres of south Texas ranch land in Kenedy County. The area is bound by Baffin Bay to the north and the Laguna Madre to the east. Laguna Madre is a long, narrow bay with a rare level of high salinity that makes it a very productive estuary, the group says. Across the Laguna Madre from the potential training ground lies the Padre Island National Seashore, the longest unbroken barrier beach in the United States and the longest undeveloped barrier beach in the world. This federally protected land is home to several endangered animals, most notably the Kemp’s ridley sea turtle. In order to practice amphibious landings, the military proposes to drive over the National Seashore and navigate through shallow sea grass beds in Laguna Madre to reach the mainland, says the Sierra Club. There is also fear that explosives would destroy the fragile dune structures along the mainland beach. For more information on the August events, email Erin Rogers at erinrogers99@hotmail.com. Citizens may also send a prewritten fax opposing the testing ground to involved leaders by visiting http://actionnetwork.org/campaign/navy_ulm. RESOURCES Environmental Fellowships Available The Environmental Leadership Program (ELP) is currently accepting applications for its fellowship program. ELP is a national non-profit organization that seeks to transform public understanding of environmental issues by training and supporting visionary, action-oriented emerging leaders. The fellowship program provides training and project support to 25 emerging professionals from the environmental field each year from nonprofits, business, government, and higher education. They define emerging professionals as practitioners who are relatively new to the environmental field with approximately three to ten years of experience. Each year, a new class of fellows is chosen to join a select group of environmental professionals from diverse backgrounds, sectors, and areas of expertise. The three-year fellowship offers unique networking opportunities, intensive leadership and skills training, project seed money, technical assistance, and mentoring. Fellows receive a $2,000 participation stipend, travel and accommodations for four training retreats, access to funding for capacity building leadership activities, and national recognition through the program. The application deadline is October 2. For more information, visit http://www.elpnet.org. Funds for Waterway Repair Available The Emergency Watershed Protection (EWP) program, sponsored by USDA's Natural Resources Conservation Service, helps protect lives and property threatened by natural disasters such as floods, hurricanes, tornadoes, and wildfires. EWP provides funding to project sponsors for such work as clearing debris from clogged waterways, restoring vegetation, and stabilizing river banks. The measures that are taken must be environmentally and economically sound and generally benefit more than one property owner. For more information, visit http://www.nhq.nrcs.usda.gov/CCS/ewpFs.html. ABOUT THIS PUBLICATION CEC Environmental News Update is a weekly publication by the Citizens' Environmental Coalition, a 501(c)3 dedicated to fostering dialogue, education and collaboration about environmental issues in the Houston-Gulf Coast Region. Visit the CEC online at www.cechouston.org. To subscribe or unsubscribe, or to suggest items for inclusion, send your request via e-mail to Sarah Doss at sarah@cechouston.org. |
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