CEC Notes
Attend the CEC Annual Meeting
The Annual Meeting of CEC Delegates will take place on Thursday, February 8, at 7 pm. Come at 6:30 for refreshments and conversation. New trustees will be introduced. Dewayne Huckabay, former head of Administration and Finance for the City of Houston, is the invited speaker. His topic: “Retiring (More or Less) Optimistically: Insights after 25 Years of Public Service.”

Coalition Notes
Subdivide and Conquer
Houston Sierra Club, Mothers for Clean Air, and the Gulf Coast Institute will present a video about sprawl, Subdivide and Conquer, on Friday, February 9, at the Houston Environmental Center, 3015 Richmond. Refreshments and reception at 6:15 pm; video from 7 to 8. A moderated discussion will follow.

The 1999 video tells how the American west is being conquered by sprawl. Rugged individualists hoping for wide-open spaces in the suburbs find themselves with no choice but to be confined to their cars commuting. The wild land is beaten back and destroyed by strip malls and parking lots in poorly planned, government subsidized, sprawling development.

For more information contact Peter Tyler at 713-256-9205 or P_Tyler@swbell.net.

Growth Conference Set for February 7
A conference for “Connecting the Visions: Creating the future we want in the Houston Gulf Coast” will be held February 7, 2001.

Over the past decades, many organizations have created documents that address future visions and plans for the region. At this conference, these visions/plans will be reviewed and attendees will discuss the best means of implementation.

The conference is hosted by the Gulf Coast Institute, the Greater Houston Community Foundation, and the Center for Houston’s Future. It will be held at the University of Houston Hilton, and attendance is limited to the first 250 to register. There is a registration fee of $25 per person to cover meals and refreshments.

For more information, go to www.livablehouston.org or call 713-523-5757.

Eco Notes
Counting the Birds
On the first day of January, twenty-seven nature enthusiasts flocked to the the Katy Prairie to count birds. The 25th annual Cypress Creek Christmas Count was part of an international effort. This season, almost 55,000 volunteers from across the United States, Canada, Central and South America, Bermuda, the West Indies, and Pacific islands participated in the Christmas Bird Count (CBC), according to the National Audubon Society, which sponsors the survey and publishes the count.

During the CBC, participants at all skill levels search for birds of as many species as they can find during a single 24-hour period, in a circle 15 miles in diameter. Annual species totals for the past three years on the Cypress Creek plot have been 127 (1998), 114 (1999), and 117 (2000). Exceptional sightings during this year’s Cypress Creek count include a Great Roadrunner and a small flock of Clay-Colored Sparrows. Each of these species has only been seen once in previous counts. Also spotted were some 13 individual Bald Eagles.

The Christmas Bird Count is a social and competitive event, but it also yields information concerning the winter distribution of birds and the overall health of the environment.

Data from the counts are entered onto www.birdsource.org or www.bsc-eoc.org; unedited data from this season and complete data from previous years are available on those sites.

Children’s Health Report Available
The US Environmental Protection Agency recently released America’s Children and the Environment, a report on environmental factors that may affect the health and well-being of children in the United States. The report presents trends in levels of environmental contaminants in air, water, food, and soil; concentrations of lead measured in children’s bodies; and the incidence of childhood diseases that may be influenced by environmental factors. For results of the study, visit http://www.epa.gov/ipbpages/current/v.4/239.htm.

Unequal Pollution
Environmentally hazardous sites are disproportionately located in low-income communities of color, according to a study from Northeastern University. The report analyzed 17 types of environmental hazard in Massachusetts, including exposure to chemical emissions and proximity to hazardous waste sites, landfills, and trash transfer stations. Nine of the 15 most environmentally overburdened communities throughout the state are of high-minority, low-income status. Communities with median household incomes of less than $30,000 average nearly seven times as many pounds of chemical emissions from industrial facilities per square mile as communities with median household incomes of $40,000 or more. And in communities where people of color make up 15 percent or more of the total population, there are, on average, more than four times the number of hazardous waste sites as in communities with less than 5 percent people of color. (ENN 1/10/01)

Supreme Court Limits Wetland Protection
On January 9, the US Supreme Court, in a divided 5-4 ruling, limited the scope of the federal Clean Water Act, which protects wetlands from development. The ruling determined that the landmark environmental law’s protections do not extend to small, isolated ponds that provide habitat for migrating birds. The decision could significantly impact efforts to preserve scattered wetland areas in the Houston region, such as the many small depressions that attract migratory waterfowl to the Katy Prairie. (Houston Chronicle 1/10/00)

Toxic Fish
Recently, the Connecticut Board of Health recommended that pregnant women, women planning to get pregnant within a year, and children under six years old limit their intake of canned tuna, fresh tuna, swordfish, and shark. These fish contain enough toxic mercury that, when eaten regularly, may cause developmental and learning problems in children. Mercury-contaminated seafood causes neurological problems in as many as 60,000 children born each year in the United States, according to a study by the National Academy of Sciences.

Most mercury that enters lakes, streams, rivers, and oceans comes from the atmosphere. About 85 percent of the mercury pollution in the United States is released by power plants that burn coal, and municipal and medical waste incinerators that burn mercury-tainted trash. (ENN 1/15/01)