CEC ENVIRONMENTAL NEWS UPDATE 11/07/03 - HOUSTON
CEC NOTES
EARTH DAY VOLUNTEERS NEEDED NOW
Earth Day is only six months away, and the CEC is gearing
up to plan the next Houston Earth Day event, to be held on April 10th,
2004. There are many exciting new projects in the works and the Earth
Day Committee is looking for enthusiastic people to help with the planning
of this wonderful event. If you believe that Houston deserves a large-scale,
environmentally sustainable Earth Day celebration, come help CEC make
it a reality. Send an email to Alesha Herrera, Houston Earth Day chair,
at alesha@calicodmp.com to
help make this year's Earth Day the best ever.
COALITION NOTES
MFCA FILM SCREENING, AFFLUENZA
The second film in a series of screenings hosted
by Mothers for Clean Air will be Friday, Nov. 14 at the Houston Environmental
Center. The film, Affluenza is a PBS documentary that takes a comic approach
to the serious implications of American consumerism. Come at 6:15 pm
for conversation, networking and free refreshments. The video will be
screened at 7:00 pm and a short, open discussion will follow. This event
is co-hosted by Houston Sierra Club's Sprawl Committee, and the Citizens'
Environmental Coalition. For more information, contact Jane Laping (713)
526-0110 mfca@mothersforcleanair.org
BIRD LECTURE AND SLIDE SHOW IN THE WOODLANDS
The Woodlands G.R.E.E.N., Community Association
and Houston Environmental Foresight will co-host a special event, The
Secret Lives of Southeast U.S. Birds, Thursday, Nov. 13. Bill Fontenot,
manager of the Acadiana Park Nature Center, in Lafayette, Louisiana is
the featured speaker. In addition to bird photography, the free slide
presentation features migration, the plants that keep birds on the move
and little-known avian facts. The lecture reveals the essential elements
birds need for survival, highlighting the plants most often used for
food and shelter. Books by Fontenot will be available at the lecture.
The event will begin at 7:30 pm at the McCullough campus of The Woodlands
High School, Nancy Bock Auditorium. For more information, call (281)
210-3900 or visit http://www.thewoodlandsgreen.org.
SIERRA CLUB TAKES WEEKEND CAMPING TRIP
From Friday-Sunday, Nov 14-16 Houston Sierra Club
will spend the weekend camping in the East Texas Piney Woods at Martin
Dies, Jr. State Park. The weekend’s highlights will include a canoe
tour down the Angelina or Neches River and morning hikes on Saturday
and Sunday. Space is limited and reservations are required. A $50 fee
includes campsites and canoe tour. To reserve a spot, on the trip, contact
Lorraine Gibson at (713) 436-1866 or (713) 625-3570 ext. 3 or email raineygib@aol.com.
NATURE DISCOVERY CENTER KICKS OFF ADULT LECTURE SERIES
On Wednesday, the Nature Discover Center kicked
off a new monthly adult
lecture series with a lecture on “Fortune Telling Frogs”.
Maura Maple, a staff naturalist at the Center, addressed the worldwide
decline in amphibian populations widespread incidence in amphibian deformity.
The lecture was the first in what will be a monthly series titled, “For
the Inquisitive Naturalist.” Upcoming lectures will be held on
the first Wednesday of every month at 7 pm in Russ Pitman Park, 7112
Newcastle. Light refreshments are available. For more information contact
Jenni Malone at jhowell@naturediscoverycenter.org.
LOCAL
RAIL VICTORY CELBRATED BY LOCAL ENVIRONMENTALISTS
by Erika McDonald
On Tuesday, Houston voters narrowly approved a $7.5
billion dollar mass transit plan for the region. Even with the final votes
tallied, both sides are saying the struggle around light rail is not over
yet.
The referendum approved construction of 22 miles of rail and the addition of
44 bus routes and double the current number of HOV lanes. It is the first step
of a plan endorsed by local environmental groups that proposes 73 miles of light
rail by 2025.
Volunteers for Houston’s Clean Water Action spent the weeks leading up
to election night canvassing neighborhoods to drum up support for rail. The group’s
director David Foster said voters’ decision to embrace car-free transit
options was a good first step toward addressing Houston’s air quality problems.
“About one third of air pollution in Houston is caused by transportation,” he
said. “So we still need to address industry emissions if we’re really
going to clean our air”
Most car-related air pollution is caused by short trips, with a disproportionate
amount of toxins being emitted in the first 15 minutes of
driving. Foster said creating walkable communities to reduce short-distance driving
would make a significant impact on Houston’s air quality.
The Metro referendum was also endorsed by Houston Sierra Club, a group currently
campaigning against sprawl and freeway expansion. Foster said Tuesday’s
vote was a victory for the anti-sprawl campaign because light rail will encourage
pedestrian friendly development along its corridors. But the anti-rail group
Texans for True Mobility Spokesman Chris Begalla said the final margin of 52-48
percent was hardly a mandate for public transit.
“After two and a half years and millions of public dollars spent to try
to shove a terrible plan down the throats of this region I guess the forces prevailed,” he
said. “Metro leaders need to look long and hard at what they want to do
over the next four to six years let alone the next 20 years.”
In fact, the jubilation of rail supporters was tempered by questions not on Tuesday's
ballot. The political will of local city and federal officials will be they key
to building the rail approved by voters.
Next month's run off between mayoral finalists Bill White, a rail supporter,
and Orlando Sanchez, who opposed the referendum holds heavy implication for the
future of light rail. The next mayor will appoint five of the nine seats on Metro's
board.
“Voters decided to choose this system and I respect the voters‚ decision
and quite frankly I’m a rail proponent and being an urban dweller myself,
I think this system is going to get people moving quicker inside the loop,” Sanchez
said.
Support from local officials at the federal level was also called into question
Tuesday night. Whether or not Metro can afford to build the lines voters approved
depends largely on how much federal money Houston receives for the project. Houston
Representative John Culberson is a vocal opponent of light rail. But now that
voters approved Metro's plan, he said would work in Washington to get it funded.
House Majority Leader Tom DeLay, of Sugar Land, had blocked federal funding for
MetroRail but now says he will respect voters’ decision.
Metro chairman Arthur Schecter is confident the two congressmen will keep their
word.
“
The public has spoken and I am very sure (congressional leaders who opposed light
rail) will do what they said they were going to do.”
But rail supporters, like Foster were not convinced.
“I promise you De Lay and Culberson are going to do everything they can
to thwart the will of the citizens of Houston in Congress by cutting off federal
funds for this program,” he said. “We’ve won a battle but we
haven’t won the war.”
Questions also remain about who Texans for True for Mobility Are and where anti-rail
campaign contributions came from. Facing an investigation by the Harris County
District Attorney, Begalla said the political action committee will disclose
who contributed and how much but that part of the group, a private educational
foundation, was protected by the first amendment.
Foster said there was no doubt in his mind where anti-rail money came from.
“This PAC is the same group of people who opposed us in Austin, the same
people who opposed us all over the countryand in spite of that nexus of power-the
republican party, (the Texas Department of Transportation) we prevailed,” he
said. “This is huge.”
Tuseday’s vote may well have marked the beginning of a shift in urban planning
away from car-oriented freeway expansion toward public transit options. But the
answers to the questions that linger will ultimately determine the way Houston
moves and grows into its future.
REPORT FINDS REGULATORY EYE OVERLOOKS DANGEROUS CHEMICALS
by Renee Feltz
A new report by the Galveston Houston Association
for Smog Prevention reveals chemicals that contribute significantly to Houston’s
air pollution problems are rarely, if ever, monitored in the region.
Two chemicals named in GHASP’s report, Acrolein an acrylic byproduct and
acrylonitrile a byproduct of several industrial processes also found in diesel
exhaust, are both known carcinogens and irritants.
According to GHASP director and author of the report, John Wilson, the Texas
Commission on Environmental Quality routinely monitors four chemicals that combine
to form ozone because it is under a federal deadline to reduce ozone levels by
2007.
“The state’s environmental agency is not pro-active in terms of seeking
out other air pollution concerns,” Wilson said. “They basically wait
for the federal government to tell them they have to do something before they’ll
do anything.”
Wilson argues this orientation means some air toxins go unmonitored even though
they are linked to major health concerns. Samples taken by citizen volunteers
and tested by EPA sanctioned laboratories frequently revealed high levels of
the chemicals.
“It’s a good alert system that these chemicals are out there, but
it’s not a good technique for coming up with an accurate estimate of long-term
average pollution exposures,” he said.
Uncertainty over the public health impact has led some researchers to call for
a new focus from TCEQ.
Professor Winnie Hamilton is the Director of Baylor College of Medicine’s
Chronic Disease Prevention and Control Research Center. She wants broader standards
for determining which of the thousands of chemicals emitted into Houston air
to monitor.
“We definitely need to have a more comprehensive approach to reducing pollution
in general to improve public health and I think being less focused on meeting
standards and more focused on improving health would be a valuable goal,” Hamilton
said.
But that is not an easy job according to Dave Sullivan who manages the data collected
by TCEQ.
“With Houston, we have a very difficult problem: 60 percent of the petrochemical
industry in America in one community and thousands of chemical species being
used everyday,” he said.
He added that standardizing efforts by the Environmental Protection Agency may
improve monitoring of one of the two chemicals not currently measured the Houston
area. As part of a new EPA program, National Air Toxics Trend, arcolein is on
the list of chemicals to be monitored. A $100,000 EPA grant will soon fund arcolein
monitoring at a site south of the Houston Ship Channel and northeast of the Texas
City industrial complex.
Wilson said he welcomes this development but remains skeptical of further progress.
“I think the state has historically been told by the elected officials
not to do anything more than what’s required by the federal government,” he
said. “It’s as if this is not being done because there’s any
public health concern but because it’s a federal requirement being imposed
on the state and, that’s an unfortunate and hazardous attitude.”
In the meantime, as Houston struggles to come into compliance with federal ozone
standards, citizen air monitors remain the only ones keeping an eye on acrylonitrile
and other toxic chemicals pumped into the air.
U.S. FISH AND WILDLIFE SERVICE PROPOSES ESA RULE CHANGE
by Eric Epp
A proposal by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service
would allow the killing and sale of animals on the endangered species list.
The proposal would permit developing countries to export animal products
such as parts of sea turtles and other federally protected animals in the
United States under the Endangered Species Act if they were used for scientific
purposes or to help propagate or enhance the species.
For example, a country would be allowed to export endangered animal parts if
it could show that income from its exports would be used for conservation purposes
for that animal.
The agency maintains that relaxing the rules would encourage habitat restoration
in developing countries. However, environmentalists claim the new rule opens
a serious loophole in the federal Endangered Species Act.
Carole Allen is Gulf Coast office director of the Sea Turtle Restoration Project
and HEART, an organization dedicated to the preservation of the Kemp’s
ridley sea turtle. She said the rule change threatens to return the status of
the sea turtle in the days before the law was passed in 1973.
“(Before the law passed) millions of turtles were slaughtered to feed the
tourist trade and provide sea-turtle leather boots, jewelry, turtle oil, lotion
and an endless number of trivial items made from shells," Allen said.
Allen said that the proposal will also affect other endangered species such as
tigers, elephants and other game animals which could be killed overseas and brought
back to the U.S. as trophies or imported by small circuses to be kept in small
cages in inhumane conditions.
“It is shocking and disappointing that the agency to which we have entrusted
our endangered species would present a proposal that will end up driving them
toward extinction, “ said Allen.
According to a statement released by the USFWS, the proposed changes do not fundamentally
weaken current policy. For example, they cite the fact that Mexico sells crocodile
skins through a captive breeding program and, therefore, does not harm its crocodile
program. The agency compares the revised policy to other regulations which allow
the drainage of wetlands if an equivalent amount of wetlands are created elsewhere,
or the killing of endangered species when they are "hindering economic development.
Public comment will be accepted on the proposed change until November 10. Comments
can be emailed to the agency at ManagementAuthority@fws.gov.
LAND AROUND BIG THICKET COULD BE PROTECTED
by Ernesto Aguilar
New federal funding may mean lands around Big Thicket
National Preserve in East Texas could be placed back in public hands.
As part of a Department of Interior spending bill, which passed the Interior
appropriations conference committee last week, $3.5 million dollars was earmarked
for the purchase of lands around the preserve.
The National Parks Conservation Association estimates another $16 million is
needed to adequately protect Big Thicket.
More than 1.5 million acres surrounding the preserve are owned by timber companies.
Houston conservation groups raised concerns recently, because they say clear-cutting
by the companies and irresponsible land use bordering Big Thicket could impact
the entire preserve.
The southeast Texas preserve was created in 1974 to protect flora and fauna indigenous
to the region. Big Thicket spans seven counties.
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.
To subscribe or unsubscribe, or to suggest items for inclusion,
send your request via e-mail to David Gresham at david@cechouston.org.
Phone: 713-524-4232
Fax: 713-524-3311
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