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CEC ENVIRONMENTAL NEWS UPDATE 8/1/03 Coalition Notes "How's Our Water?" The Houston-Galveston Area Council will sponsor a water
issues workshop next week. "How's Our Water? Protecting Our Rivers, Lakes,
Bayous and Bays" will feature a public forum on water resource issues
such as non-point source pollution, volunteer water monitoring certification,
an overview of water quality curriculum resources and partnership and
networking opportunities. The workshop is Sat. Aug 9 at the University
of Houston Clear Lake. The event is co-sponsored by the Texas Commission
on Environmental Quality, and U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. To
pre-register, and guarantee a lunch, contact Terry Wendland at 1-877-506-1401
or TW05@swt.ed. To see the workshop
agenda, visit Nature Discovery Center offers back to school programs With the new school year just around the corner, the Nature Discover Center has environmental opportunities for students and parents. The Insect Club, for example, is an interactive puppet show that gives facts about insects, spiders, and other animals and teaches counting and memorization skills. Back to the Bone is a presentation about the five classes of animals that have a backbone, known as vertebrates. Information is given to students in an informal atmosphere with specimens and live animals to be touched. Creepy Crawlies offers a mix of facts and fiction about animals that scare people. Specimens and live animals help demonstrate the information. For more information about other Nature Discovery Center Programs, call713-667-6550 or contact Anne Eisner at aeisner@naturediscoverycenter.org. Local Metro approves rail-heavy mobility plan by Erika McDonaldWhat officials are calling the most comprehensive rail plan in the city’s history now heads to the November ballot box. In a 6-3 vote, METRO’s board of directors yesterday approved a 22-year transit expansion plan that includes 65 miles of light rail, and eight miles of commuter rail. Beyond rail, the plan aims to increase express bus service by 50 percent adding 47 new routes and doubling existing mileage to 250. The Transit Authority was lauded for its bold move by many at the meeting who say traditional solutions to mobility problems, which in Houston means highway expansion, are costly and ineffective. Waving a front page Houston Chronicle headlining budget overruns on the Katy freeway expansion, U.S. Representative Sheila Jackson Lee told the METRO board roads cost taxpayers more to build than rail and bring more negative environmental and quality of life impacts. Rail costs $46 million per mile compared to roads, which cost $77 million. Bigger highways also mean more cars on the road, emitting toxic fumes. The roads-vs-rail struggle is at the heart of a continuing conversation on how to fund the new METRO plan. In order to pay for rail, METRO must cut its 25 percent budget allocation reserved road construction and repair. A proposal to cut the road fund to 12 percent of METRO’s budget was tabled until Aug 11, but voters will ultimately decide the issue this November. Landfill injunction overturned by Erika McDonaldA court order to stop the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality from considering a permit to build a toxic landfill in Beach City was overturned yesterday in the 5th U.S. circuit court of appeals. Sixteen residents sued the state agency last year on the grounds that it violated due process by considering the permit even though no existing laws govern industrial solid waste landfills. In the absence of state law, citizens have no way to formally oppose the permitting process. The appellate court determined that, until the permit is granted, citizens’ constitutional arguments were "abstract and theoretical." The decision effectively lifts the temporary injunction imposed by U.S. district Judge Samuel Kent last May. TSP Development, the company that would build the landfill plans to store 811,760 tons of industrial waste annually including lead, mercury and arsenic. Houston attorney Guy Matthews who represents the Beach City residents vowed, if his motion for reconsideration fails, he would take the fight to the Supreme Court. Upcoming events call local attention to Maxxam logging A new organization, the Southern Alliance of Coastal Redwood Earth Defenders will be at work this weekend to raise local awareness of what they call Houston-based Maxxam’s devastation of forests on the Pacific Coast. The group’s founder and director Rhea Green said even though the logging takes place in California, Houstonians should do their part to put pressure on Maxxam locally. Green will be featured at a local meeting of The Woman’s Group this Sun, Aug 3 at the Unitarian Universalist Church. Later that night, environmentalists will gather at a
community center in the Heights to watch films about tree-sitting and
the commercial logging industry while making posters in preparation for
a planned protest at Maxxam headquarters on Monday. Green said the protest Aug. 4 will coincide with a call in campaign that day. Green said SACRED is encouraging people who cannot attend the protest to express opposition to Maxxam’s logging practices by calling company officials. Monday will also kick off SACRED’s green ribbon campaign. Ribbons will be handed out at the protest. Following a Memorial Park tree-sit last month that brought local mainstream media attention to local redwoods activists, Maxxam officials maintained that they are not responsible for the practices of their subsidiary, Pacific Lumber. SACRED has detailed information about upcoming events on their web site at http://www.SacredRedwood.org. Still no decision on nuclear plant Associated Press A measure passed in the state senate Monday would roll back laws that require the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality to consider companies’ environmental track record when considering new permits and handing out fines. "Consistent and fair" consideration of a company’s compliance history was a central component of the 2001 Sunset reforms. The Sunset advisory commission spent two years considering citizen and industry comments on TCEQ’s enforcement and permitting programs. The resulting legislation, which required TCEQ to consider compliance history, was enacted with widespread support from Republicans and Democrats alike. Senate bill 55, passed this week, would make consideration of compliance history discretionary. Public Citizen’s executive director Tom Smith said that by leaving it up to TCEQ, lawmakers leave the cash strapped agency vulnerable to pressure from polluters who promise new jobs. "TCEQ is not the world’s toughest watchdog,"
Smith said. "Time after time they’ve proven they’re willing
to trade pollution for short-term economic benefit." Houston-based Waste Management fined for landfill State officials have levied $239,000 in fines for environmental violations at an Austin-area landfill where the noxious odors wafted into nearby neighborhoods. The penalty against Houston-based Waste Management Inc., is the largest against a landfill since the Legislature gave the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality the authority to issue fines in 1986, commission spokeswoman Adria Dawidczik told the Austin American-Statesman in Tuesday's editions. The violations occurred in 2002 and probably contributed to the bad odors, officials said. An adjacent landfill run by Browning-Ferris Industries was also cited, but its fine is pending. Residents who live near the landfills have complained for almost two years to the state and Travis County, saying the smell often becomes unbearable in the winter and after it rains. For them, the fine is not large enough. "I think it stinks; it's outrageous," said Trek English, the president of the NorthEast Action Group, which represents many neighborhood organizations in the area. "They spend that much just lobbying officials to get their way." Waste Management officials released a written statement about its most recent improvements. They paved a main road and installed a wheel-washing system to reduce the mud on another and are installing new groundwater monitoring wells at the request of neighbors. The company has also taken care of all the problems found by the state commission last year, according to the proposed order laying out the fine. The commission sent the proposed agreement to a Waste Management lawyer last week. One of the more significant violations at both landfills was allowing too much storm water to gather in the garbage, a condition that commission officials said probably sped up the decomposition of trash, leading to increased gas production and likely some of the odors. Also, gases were not collected or monitored properly, which also might have led to odors, officials said.
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 Kevin Brower at kevin@cechouston.org. |
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