TOWN HALL MEETING CONFIRMS AIR POLLUTION PROBLEMS, OFFERS FEW SOLUTIONS
by Sarah Morgan

At a town hall meeting held at Milby High School Wednesday night to discuss air pollution solutions, industry representatives touted improvements while officials promised answers, but the state agency in charge of regulating pollution was a no-show, much to the dismay of the more than 200 angry and frustrated residents who attended.

Council member Carol Alvarado called the meeting, and the agenda was to have included a report on Houston's east end pollution problems by the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality, the state's regulatory agency. In particular, Vincent Leopold, from the TCEQ's toxicology section, was expected to be present, but Harris County Precinct 2 commissioner Sylvia Garcia announced to the crowd that she had received a phone message from TCEQ at 4 pm that day saying agency representatives would not be able to attend. According to Alvarado, the TCEQ told the Mayor's office they felt the agency representatives were being "set up."

Though city officials readily admitted there was a problem, most said that their hands were tied when it came to pollution solutions, passing the buck on to the TCEQ.

Arturo Blanco, chief of Houston's Bureau of Air Quality Control, explained that his department depends on TCEQ for funding.

"When you look at the contract with TCEQ and the amount of complaints we receive and handle, there is a disparity there," he said. "Seventeen percent of the budget in terms of what we receive goes to complaints. However, 33 percent of the work that we do is complaints. If we don't get funding, we can't respond to complaints in the way that we should."

Blanco also said that of the more than 700 complaints received, only three percent came from the Milby area, one of the areas in Houston most affected by air pollution.

"We have to raise the level of awareness in the public," he said.

But residents and other concerned citizens pointed out that the high percentage of Hispanic residents in the area could have a lot to do with the low number of complaints.

"Where's the Spanish option?" said Carlos Bustos, a community organizer with Mothers for Clean Air, the nonprofit membership arm of the Galveston-Houston Association for Smog Prevention.

Elected officials said they are working on it. Bob Allen, interim director of Harris County Pollution Control, also said it is the TCEQ that determines the regulations.

"There are no fence line limits for air toxics, so we have to rely on the nuisance rule," Allen said. Currently, Allen said his department is focusing on ozone monitoring, which will provide more knowledge about all air toxics.

Neil Carman, state clean air director for the Lone Star chapter of the Sierra Club, and John Wilson, executive director of GHASP, were also on hand to answer resident's questions. It was Carman who put the problem into perspective for the audience, saying that Texas leads the nation in butadiene emissions, and Harris County is number one in the US.

"There's no 'speed limit' that companies have to abide by," Carman said. "There's not enough enforcement action in Harris County. There's not enough monitoring."

Industry representatives from Texas Petrochemical, ExxonMobil, and Goodyear touted their environmental accomplishments, saying that they've all cut their emissions dramatically and will continue to work on further improvements.

But Wilson pointed out that there is a disparity between what is being reported and what is actually being emitted.

"There's something different about the plants in this part of the city," Wilson said. "It doesn't take very long to get a lifetime dose of air pollution in this area."

Residents and other concerned parties lined up for the question and answer portion of the meeting, many visibly angry about the situation in Houston. Residents complained of respiratory problems and unexplained skin irritation, while others said their children suffered from asthma and uncontrollable shaking. Many had questions directed toward the absent TCEQ.

Officials encouraged attendees to call the TCEQ, offering direct lines to the two representatives who did not show up.

The Houston Chronicle reported that the agency is scheduling its own public meeting on the air pollution issue soon. But officials said that might not be enough.

"The entire state of Texas is going to have to hear us, if we have to drive up to TCEQ ourselves," said state representative Joe Moreno. Moreno said he would bus Houstonians to Austin in order to get their voices heard, if it came to that.

CONGRESSIONAL REPORT CALLS FOR CUTS IN EASEMENT BENEFITS
By Sarah Morgan

The congressional Joint Committee on Taxation recommended new limits to the deductions landowners can take for donating a conservation easement, the Washington Post reported last week.

The new limits recommended by the influential committee could cut deductions by up to one-third and eliminate tax deductions for all buildings and tracts of land that could be used as personal residences, the Post reported.

Conservation easements require landowners to preserve their property from further development, but owners are still able to use their land for low-impact activities and agriculture.

The Joint Committee claims that the system is being abused and that the proposed reforms could save the US treasury $1 billion over the next ten years.

According to the Post, the report states that the benefits of such easements are "tenuous and speculative," but environmental groups disagree, saying that easements are a large part of what makes a community livable. Green spaces aid in maintaining clean air and water, and provide open space, parks, and wildlife habitat, reports the Land Trust Alliance in Washington, D.C.

According to the Land Trust Alliance, if current population and land use trends continue, open land in America will be covered with three times more development in the next 50 years. Nationwide, more than 7 million acres are protected through easements.

In Texas, the Nature Conservancy, the world's largest environmental group, has conserved more than 900,000 acres through easements and owns 34 Texas nature preserves. Still, the group says Texas is losing its undeveloped land faster than any other state in the US.

According to the Post, the committee's recommendation for both historic buildings and open land not being used as a residence is to reduce the amount that may be written off to 33 percent of the easement's estimated cash value, from the current 100 percent. For easements on open land, donors would have to prove that the "easement's restrictions clearly benefited a specific government conservation program" before they could be awarded an easement, according to the Post.

The Land Trust Alliance acknowledges that the system could benefit from reform, but says the current proposals are not the way to go.

For the full Washington Post article, visit
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A42697-2005Jan27.html.

CONFERENCE: CLIMATE CHANGE, EXTREME EVENTS, AND COASTAL CITIES

A joint Houston-London conference, organized by the Environmental and Energy Systems Institute's Shell Center for Sustainability (Rice University) and universities in London (led by University College London), will be held all day Wednesday, Feb 9. Scheduled speakers include Bill White, Julian Hunt from University College London, and Tim Killeen, director of the National Center for Atmospheric Research. Speakers will address such issues as causes of climate change, and the impact of climate change on coastal cities, specifically Houston and London. The conference will be at Rice University, Jesse H. Jones Graduate School of Management, Shell Oil Auditorium. Registration is free, but must be by Feb 4. To register, visit http://www.regonline.com/19890. For more information, contact Gary Marfin at (713) 348-4133.

CONFERENCE: URBAN JUNGLE - CITIES IN THE IMAGE OF NATURE

The Rice Environmental Club is holding its 13th annual conference on Feb 12 from 8:30 am to 5:30 pm. This year's focus is on "seeing green," and the conference will discuss the importance of incorporating green space into the planning of cities. Experts will talk about the difficulties as well as the benefits of including public parks, gardens, and conservation easements in urban environments. Panels will then discuss the built environment and how cities can be made to function more like natural environments. The conference will be in the McMurtry Auditorium in Duncan Hall on the Rice University campus. For more information, visit http://www.ruf.rice.edu/~enviclub.

HOUSTON GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY ANNUAL ROAD RALLY

The Houston Geological Society is looking for volunteers and registrants for its annual Road Rally. The Road Rally is a contest where a team or individual is given a packet with clues directing a team to travel by car to secret cultural, historical, and geological sites in and around Houston. The team that answers the most questions based on the sites/clues and does it using the least mileage wins a trophy. Coffee and donuts and a souvenir tee-shirt are included. The course takes 3-4 hours to complete and ends in a social event at which trophies are awarded. The event is Saturday April 23 at 9 am, but HGS is accepting registrations and volunteers now. To register or for more information, visit http://www.hgs.org.

HOUSTON AUDUBON SEEKS EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR

Houston Audubon Society is seeking a new Executive Director to manage a staff of eight professionals, 300+ volunteers, and over 3,000 acres of sanctuaries. The mission of Houston Audubon is to promote the conservation and appreciation of birds and wildlife habitat. Houston Audubon owns and manages 20 bird sanctuaries in the Houston area, and it has an education component that serves thousands of children and adults every year through a variety of innovative programs. Incorporated as a Texas nonprofit corporation in 1969, Houston Audubon has over 4,000 members. It participates vigorously in conservation issues on the upper Gulf Coast and takes advocacy positions as required to protect local birds and their habitat. The candidate for this position must have experience in management of personnel, strong business skills, prior nonprofit experience, an interest in birds, and a passion for conservation. Resumes are being accepted by e-mail at has-ed@houston.rr.com.

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