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Environmental News Update 6/7/02 COALITION NOTES Livable Houston to discuss Buffalo Bayou Plan For over a year, the Buffalo Bayou Partnership has been working with Thompson Design Group on a Master Plan for restoration and redevelopment of the city’s central waterway. Ann Olsen, President of the Partnership, will share this vision at the next Livable Houston meeting on Wednesday, June 26, at 11:30 am at the Houston-Galveston Area Council, 3555 Timmons, second floor. Participants may bring their own lunches. For more on the Livable Houston Initiative, go to: www.livablehouston.org Green Building Event June 14 A seminar on green building is set for June 14. The event will explore the US Green Building Council’s Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) rating system. Sponsored by the American Institute of Architects, Houston; the Houston Chapter of Associated General Contractors; and the Greater Houston Area Chapter of the US Green Building Council, the event will be held at the AGC building, 3825 Dacoma. For more information email paula.p@agchouston.org or call 713-843-3707. Freedom Riders to Return Due to the success of the Memorial Day Bike Ban BAASH, the BikeHouston Freedom Riders will ride again on the 4th of July. The METRO Bike Ban BBAASH (Bikers and Busriders Are Super Houstonians) on Independence Day will protest bikes being banned from trails, intersections, busses, and bus lanes. Riders will meet at 8 am at Texas Medical Center, Braes Bayou (Galen) at Fannin, and ride to METRO’s downtown office and back, about 20 miles. For more information contact Dan Lundeen at 713-652-2555 or bikemandan@bikehouston.org. LOCAL Katy Corridor Coalition Hosts Second Public Meeting More than 500 citizens attended the second public meeting hosted by the Katy Corridor Coalition on June 4 at Memorial High School. As occurred at the first public forum on April 24, presenters discussed the noise, health, and flooding impacts and transit alternatives that organizers say were not adequately analyzed by the Environmental Impact Statement produced by the Texas Department of Transportation. Architect David Robinson also talked about the importance of good design and public process. Katy Corridor Coalition organizer Polly Ledvina says their goal is to get all parties to discuss real, long-term solutions to the mobility issues surrounding I10. Unfortunately, she says, getting officials to sit down at the table may require litigation, for which the coalition is preparing. Ledvina also emphasizes that this discussion is not just about the Katy Freeway, but about how all of the region’s mobility issues will be handled in the future. www.katycorridor.org Public Report on Tropical Storm Allison Released A year after the great floods of 2001, the Tropical Storm Allison Recovery Project (TSARP) has released Off the Charts: Tropical Storm Allison Public Report. The 36-page, full-color document features details on flood damage, what’s being done now, and striking photos of the flood and recovery efforts. TSARP is a partnership between the Federal Emergency Management Agency and the Harris County Flood Control District. Copies of the report are available at participating HEB stores in Harris County or the TSARP office at 16225 Park Ten Place, Suite 420, Houston. Both the English and the Spanish versions can be downloaded from the TSARP website as well, at: www.tsarp.org Bayport Schedule Update The US Army Corps of Engineers is scheduled to release its final Environmental Impact Statement on the Bayport Container Port facility on August 15, 2002. A permit decision is currently set for November 15, 2002. In a related story, the South Carolina legislature, under intense public pressure, has asked the local Ports Authority to abandon plans to construct a container port facility on Daniel Island in Charleston Harbor, and instead look for a more suitable location. For details on battles against new container port facilities across the country and around the world, see:
STATE Clean Air Advocates Attend TNRCC Meeting About 20 clean air advocates from Houston joined others from around the state at the Texas Natural Resource Conservation Commission meeting on Wednesday, June 5. At that event, TNRCC announced it will review new air quality data to determine if it is possible to lower industrial nitrogen oxide emissions reduction requirements in the clean air plan from 90 to 80 percent. Those reductions would be replaced with yet unspecified reductions in previously unreported volatile organic compound (VOC) emissions. The environmentalists didn’t convince TNRCC to reconsider this so-called “rollback” of the clean air plan. But, “we definitely affected to mood of the commission,” says GHASP Executive Director John Wilson. He added that TNRCC now understands it has to weigh public opinion while making upcoming decisions. For details on the fight against backsliding in the clean air plan, visit: www.ghasp.org/publications/siprollback Sierra Club Calls for Padre Island Mineral Right Buyout The Sierra Club is calling on the state of Texas, the Department of the Interior, and the White House to examine the cost and feasibility of buying the rights to oil and gas deposits under and close to Padre Island National Seashore. Last Wednesday the Bush Administration announced a similar $235 million buyout of privately held oil and gas rights below Florida's Big Cypress National Preserve and federally owned mineral rights off the coast of the Florida panhandle. In February, the National Park Service approved an operation for gas exploration and production on Padre Island National Seashore. For the past four months the park has been overrun by 18-wheelers that drive 15 miles up and down the beach to service a drilling rig in the dunes, according to the Sierra Club. Despite the Sierra Club’s campaign that inspired 631 people to fax the NPS opposing drilling in and around the National Seashore, NPS is expected to approve another permit for an even larger operation that will last 140 days or more. Opponents are planning a camp-in and protest at Malequite Beach when a permit decision is announced, probably in mid-June. For more information about this issue, contact Fred Richardson at 512-477-1729. Turtle Rescue An endangered sea turtle laid more than 100 eggs in a rut left by one of the 18-wheelers that are part of the oil and gas drilling on Padre Island National Seashore, according to the National Park Service. Luckily, a volunteer turtle watcher saw the turtle and her eggs, and made sure they were moved before another truck ran over them. NPS has authorized BNP, the drilling company, to have up to 40 truck trips per day along the 15-mile stretch of beach where the eggs were found. 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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