EcoNotes

Federal Agencies Criticize State Water Plan
Both the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) are critical of the Texas State Water Plan.

In an official comment letter to the Texas Water Development Board, NMFS said the plan “largely fails to address the water needs for fish and wildlife, ignores the fact that many rivers and streams could stop flowing if all current permitted water withdrawals were exercised, and fails to guarantee by legal statue or regional plan, the freshwater inflows necessary to sustain the diverse and economically important productivity of Texas bays and estuaries.”

The USFWS notes the “apparent oversight regarding the values of a healthy environment, the available consumptive and non-consumptive uses, and the associated economics of sustainable natural resource conservation. Throughout this draft plan, the economic benefits of a multitude of water uses are described and used as the basis for justifying a number of water management strategies that would satisfy those needs. Except for Region H [the Houston region], no other planning region afforded the conservation of our State’s natural resources the same level of analytical consideration.”

The full comment letters can be viewed at www.nwf.org/texaswaterforwildlife/federalagencies.html.

Park Plans
On Monday, February 4 at 7 pm at St. Theresa’s Church, the Memorial Park Conservancy will host a public meeting to discuss the Memorial Park Conservation/Master Plan. The meeting will provide an opportunity for those interested to hear the results of the interviews, inventories, and analyses the Conservancy has collected to date, and voice any additional ideas and concerns. For more information, email Claire Caudill at jccaudill@aol.com.

Denver Breathing Easier
In December 2001, after 25 years of work by local, state, and federal governments, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) designated the Denver metropolitan area as “in attainment” of the National Ambient Air Quality Standards (NAAQS) for carbon monoxide and ground level ozone smog. This means the region has both met the standards, and provided evidence that it can maintain compliance well into the future. Once the EPA grants attainment status for particulate matter, which it is expected to do soon, Denver will comply with all federal health-based air quality standards. (ENN 1/02)

Years of Negligence
In 2001, the Houston/Galveston region violated the federal health-based air quality standard for ground level ozone smog on 32 days.

In 1970, President Nixon signed the Clean Air Act (CAA), requiring the Houston/Galveston region to comply with the federal ozone standard by 1977. In 1977, Congress amended the Clean Air Act setting a new attainment date of 1982. The US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) then granted a state-requested extension, pushing the deadline to 1987. In 1985 the EPA approved a State Implementation Plan (SIP) to reach attainment for the region; in 1987, they reneged, saying the plan was not adequate. In 1990, amendments to the CAA required an attainment SIP by 1994. In 1997, the EPA extended the deadline to 1998. In 2000, the most recent version of the SIP was submitted and approved by the EPA. The current SIP, meant to meet federal standards by 2007, still requires 56 more tons of nitrogen oxides (NOx) emissions reductions per day for attainment, according to Texas Natural Resource Conservation Commission modeling. For a detailed history of the SIP process, visit www.ghasp.org/publications/sipchallenge/chronology.html.

Wind Capacity Grows
In 2001, 16 states installed a record 1,694 megawatts (MW) of new wind power generating equipment, boosting the industry’s total capacity by more than 60 percent, according to the American Wind Energy Association. The year’s contribution is enough to power 475,0000 average US households. Texas alone installed 900 MW in 2001 – more than has ever been installed in one year across the entire country. (Reuters 1/02)

Warming Up, Slightly
The 2001 composite global temperature was 0.06 degrees C (0.11 degrees F) warmer than the 20-year (1979 - 1998) average, according to data gathered by instruments aboard NOAA satellites. Compared to the other 20 years, 2001 was the ninth warmest, or the 15th coolest. The hottest year in the satellite dataset was 1998 at 0.46 degrees C (0.83 degrees F) warmer than normal. The coldest year was 1984, which was 0.26 degrees C (0.46 degrees F) cooler than normal. (UniSci 1/02)

Pesticides and Parkinson’s
Herbicides and pesticides have been increasing linked to Parkinson’s Disease (PD), according to a recent article in E/The Environmental Magazine. The first connection was made in the early 1980s, when young people illegally taking an impure form of Demerol, which has a similar chemical structure to a common herbicide, exhibited symptoms of the neurodegenerative disorder. In a recent Stanford study, Parkinson’s patients were twice as likely to have been exposed to in-home insecticides than those people without the disease. People exposed to herbicides also were more likely to develop PD. A large study at the Henry Ford Health System in Detroit showed those exposed to herbicides had a four times greater chance of developing PD; those exposed to insecticides were 3.5 times more likely to get the disease. (E/The Environmental Magazine, 1/02)