CEC ENVIRONMENTAL NEWS UPDATE – 2/21/03

COALITION NOTES

Environmental Lobby Day

Coalition members will be out in force on March 3 for Environmental Lobby Day in Austin- and you can join them. First learn how to lobby by attending a training workshop on Sunday, March 2. Training sessions will focus issues like clean air and water, hazardous waste, environmental-law enforcement and renewable energy. Then put your new skills to the test on Monday by lobbying your state legislators. A rally on the steps of the Capitol will follow. For help with transportation from Houston to Austin contact Greg Broyels(West / Central Houston) at 713-880-2132 orCharlotte Wells (East / Southeast Houston) at 281-842-7764. Register for the event by contacting Erin Rogersat 512-477-1729.

MFCA hosts air monitoring events

According to the 2000 U.S. EPA Toxics Release Inventory (TRI), Harris County
ranks as the U.S. county with the third highest toxic air pollution in the
country. Nearly twenty four million pounds of toxic pollutants were reported
to have been released into the air by regulated industries, most of them
located near the Houston Ship Channel. Yet recent scientific measurements
indicate that many of these chemicals are underreported by a factor of five
to twenty.

At high enough levels, toxic pollutants can cause serious health problems
including cancer, and reproductive and respiratory effects. However, we
frequently do not know which chemicals people are actually exposed to, or at
what levels, due to infrequent monitoring, distant monitors and poor communication of monitoring data.

To highlight the importance of monitoring for air pollutants ,Mothers for Clean Air will co-sponsor an air monitoring round table discussion on Friday, Feb 28 and a Community Air Monitoring Fair Saturday, March 1.

The monitoring fair will consist of a series of exhibits that will educate citizens, industry, regulatory agencies and the media on the latest developments in air monitoring technology, give people hands-on experience with community-friendly equipment that can test the air and inform industry of citizen-led projects.

The roundtable will be a discussion among regulatory agencies, residents and
industry where participants will learn about existing monitoring for air pollutants in the Houston-Galveston area and foster dialogue about how monitoring programs can expand our knowledge of air quality.

The roundtable discussion is Friday, February 28 from1:00-3:00 PM. at the Pasadena ISD Administration Building, 1515 Cherry Brook Lane and Strawberry Road, in Rooms T3 and T4.

The Fair is from 10:30 a.m. to 3:00 p.m. at the City of Houston's Bureau of Air Quality Control, 7411 Park Place and Telephone Road. Both events are free and open to the public. For more information contact Jane Lapingat 713-526-0110 or visit MFCAon the web.

Master Naturalist Volunteer Training

The Gulf Coast Chapter of the Texas Master Naturalist program is still taking applications for it's Spring 2003 volunteer training session which begins March 4th. Classes will be on 13 consecutive Tuesday evenings, with six field
trips on Saturdays. The program, which is a cooperative effort of Texas Parks and Wildlife and the Texas Cooperative Extension, will furnish participants with essential information and strategies to restore and conserve our indigenous species and habitats. For more information, or to receive an application, contact the Harris County Cooperative Extension at 281-855-5614.

Environmental Art Exhibit

Natural Legacy will host a Student Environmental Art Exhibit and "Friendraiser" at Michaeline's Restaurant & Gallery on Tuesday, Feb 25 from 5:30 p.m. - 8:00 p.m. There will be an exhibit and auction of the paintings produced by high school participants in Natural Legacy’s Student Environmental Art Council. The student artists will be in attendance to discuss their work. $20 donations will be welcomed at the door. Food will be catered by Michaeline's Restaurant and there will be an open bar. All proceeds from the auction will benefit Natural Legacy's community-based environmental art after-school programs and field experiences for our high school participants. Michaeline's is located at 1512 W. Alabama (across from the Menil Art Gallery parking lot). For more information please contact Debbie Rhodesat 713-590-5193.

Local

Cleanup to begin on Houston Seperfund site

The Environmental Protection Agency expects to begin new sampling activities soon at a Superfund site that local residents and the city of Houston hope can be remediated and developed as an extension of their neighborhood. The 36-acre Many Diversified Interests site, is in federal receivership after investigators found unacceptable levels of contaminants. EPA recently initiated a Remedial Investigation and Feasibility Study after elevated concentrations of lead, arsenic, chromium and other metals were collected at the former industrial facility in 1994.
Although buildings that once occupied the site were demolished and more than 5,000 barrels of used chemicals were removed, the soil is still dangerously contaminated. More than 100 families live within close proximity to the site and Bruce Elementary School is located directly across the street. A 1998 study by Texas Department of Health’s , Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry concluded 22% of the children in the Fifth Ward had elevated levels of lead in their blood compared to the 9% average for the rest of Texas. The elevated levels may be linked to the children’s proximity to the MDI site. The site is contaminated with lead and other metals from a steel casting operation that operated there decades ago. Although the buildings that once occupied the site were demolished and the barrels were removed, the soil is still dangerously contaminated.
The city held a series of meetings with local residents to determine a possible future use, which resulted in a report calling for a largely residential, mixed-use development after remediation. In 2001, the EPA awarded a $50,000 grant to Mothers for Clean Air for technical assistance and interpretation of environmental reports on the site’s contamination.
Another plan currently in the works for the site is a beautification project involving neighborhood children. Organized by the Museum of Cultural Arts Houston, the project will recruit children from neighborhood elementary schools and community centers to paint a 1,920-foot mural that will adorn a chain-link fence that surrounds the site. For more information about the MDI Superfund site, visit http://www.tnrcc.state.tx.us/permitting/remed/superfund/mdia.html. For more information about the beautification project email MOCAH.

Houston CEO calls for mandatory emissions reporting

Exxon Mobil Corp. Chief Executive Lee Raymond said this week laws targeting emission cuts on gases blamed for global warming should not be created until companies are required to report on carbon emission.
"We voluntarily report our emissions and back mandatory reporting based on effective and reliable procedures as essential preconditions to policies that target emission reductions," Raymond told a Cambridge Energy Research Associates conference.
Exxon Mobil has long been the focus of environmentalists' anger for its perceived reluctance to acknowledge the growing scientific data showing the role fossil fuels play in climate change.
Carbon dioxide emissions from smokestacks and tailpipes are widely believed to contribute to global warming, which scientists say could lift sea levels and submerge island states and sharply alter weather patterns, increasing the frequency of severe storms.
Raymond said Exxon Mobil was researching cleaner energy sources, including hydrogen-based technologies, but said tremendous advances were needed for economically viable alternatives.
Measuring emissions from companies that burn fossil fuels is seen as a precursor to developing an emissions exchange or "cap and trade" system under which polluters who exceed their pollution allotment can buy other companies' excess emission rights.
Supporters, including many industries, have said such a trading system is the most economical method to reduce greenhouse gas output.
The European Union issued a proposal earlier this month to improve its monitoring of greenhouse gas emissions, and is expected to launch an emissions trading system in coming years.
The Chicago Climate Exchange said last month it would launch an Internet-based market this spring for carbon dioxide and methane, another greenhouse gas.
The Bush administration, which pulled the United States out of the global warming Kyoto Protocol pact in 2000, has been collecting written pledges from industries to curb greenhouse gas emissions in a drive to stave off mandatory controls, The New York Times reported in January.

Public hearing set for I-10 FEIS

The Texas Department of Transportation released a re-evaluation of the Final Environmental Impact Statement for the I-10 expansion project on Tuesday. The re-evaluation addresses the use of four toll roads in the center of the freeway between State Highway 6 and the 610 loop and the addition of elevated Beltway 8 frontage-road lanes.

The intent of the re-evaluation is to identify and evaluate refinements in design, proposed operations and any environmental consequences of replacing METRO's HOV lanes with Harris County Toll Road Authority’s toll lanes. According to Polly Ledvina, an organizer with the Katy Corridor Coalition, the TXDOT plan will not solve the area’s traffic problems.

"Relying solely on more and bigger freeways and tollways is a crude and outdated strategy already shown everywhere not to work," she said.

A public meeting to discuss the re-evaluation will be held on Thursday, Feb. 27, 2003 at the West Chester Educational Center, 901 Yorkchester from 6:00pm until 9:00pm. According to Norm Woodington, a public information officer with TXDOT, written comments would be accepted into March.

Ledvina said that Houstonians concerned about transportation problems should attend the meeting, even if they do not live in the Katy corridor.

"We need as many people as possible to help us send the message that Houstonians want cleaner, more modern, efficient and thoughtful solutions to our mobility problems than we are currently being handed," she said.

The entire FEIS is available online at www.katycorridor.org.

THIS WEEK’S EVENTS

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.

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