CEC Notes
CEC Hiring Environmental Reporter
The Citizens’ Environmental Coalition is hiring a part-time environmental reporter/editor. Responsibilities include tracking local environmental issues, writing for the monthly Environmental Exchange and weekly email Environmental News Update, and editing stories from other writers. For a complete job description, visit www.cechouston.org/jobs.html. If interested, please send a resume, cover letter, and samples of your written work to issues@cechouston.org.

Barrie Zimmelman Remembered
On Tuesday, May 21, Barrie Zimmelman, one of Houston’s great protectors, passed away. Zimmelman became interested in revitalizing Houston when she moved here in 1962. She helped preserve Old Market Square and was one of the original organizers of the International Festival. Zimmelman and several other women founded Citizens Who Care, which would eventually grow into the Citizens’ Environmental Coalition. She has also been active in a number of CEC’s member organizations, including Trees for Houston and The Park People. The environmental community will miss her tenacity and leadership. In lieu of flowers, the Zimmelman family suggests that memorials be made to CEC and Special Pals, a local animal shelter.

Coalition Notes
Bayou Kids Address City Council
“We have noticed that our bayous have been mistreated and many have been neglected,” 12-year-old Kassandra Flores told Houston’s mayor and city council on June 4. The soon-to-be seventh grader followed her statement with a list of requests, including promoting bayou clean-ups, creating parks along the bayous, and not allowing buildings too close to our waterways. Kassandra’s testimony was part of the 3-day Houston Convocation 2002, a component of the Bayou Preservation Association’s Kids on the Bayou environmental education program. More than 60 elementary, middle, and high school students spent three days learning about and touring local waterways. On the last day, participants took an educational boat trip on the Trinity River and Galveston Bay. For more information on the annual Houston Convocation and Kids on the Bayou, contact Duncan Ragsdale at duncanrags@ev1.net.

Conservation Conference
On Saturday, July 20th the Lone Star Chapter of the Sierra Club will host its sixth annual Conservation Conference at the Armand Bayou Nature Center in Houston. The day-long conference will feature an array of speakers on current parkland and habitat conservation issues facing Texas. It will also highlight the statewide land and water conservation plan that is currently being developed by Texas Parks & Wildlife. Two of the special places that the Sierra Club and other organizations are trying to protect in southeast Texas – the Katy Prairie and the Trinity River bottomland hardwood forests – will be highlighted throughout the day. A detailed conference agenda is available at www.texas.sierraclub.org, or call 512-477-1729.

Houston Valdez

Art car sculptor Noah Edmundson is pictured here with an early version of his creation, “Air, Water, Earth, and Fire?” The sculpture was commissioned by Galveston Houston Association for Smog Prevention (GHASP) and the Citizens’ League for Environmental Action Now (CLEAN) to help people visualize the 131,000 tons of unreported pollution – as calculated by recent air quality testing – being released into the Houston region’s air by major chemical plants. This pollution is the equivalent by weight to roughly three times the Exxon Valdez oil spill, and is symbolized by three oil tankers, spewing chemicals into the air. The artwork was unveiled at a June protest of the Texas Natural Conservation Commission’s decision to relax industrial pollution controls in the state’s clean air plan. For more details, visit www.ghasp.org.

EcoNotes
Bikeway Maps Available
In honor of Bike to Work Day in May, the City of Houston Bikeway Program released its much anticipated map of all the bicycle trails, lanes, and routes in the area. The maps can now be requested from the Bikeway Program office at 713-837-0003 or online at www.houstonbikeways.org. Eventually, they will be available at most bike shops and city libraries.

Allison, A Year Later
A year after the great floods of 2001, the Tropical Storm Allison Recovery Project (TSARP) has released Off the Charts: Tropical Storm Allison Public Report. The 36-page, full-color document features details on flood damage, what’s being done now, and striking photos of the flood and recovery efforts. TSARP is a partnership between the Federal Emergency Management Agency and the Harris County Flood Control District. Copies of the report are available at participating HEB stores in Harris County or the TSARP office at 16225 Park Ten Place, Suite 420, Houston. Both the English and the Spanish versions can be downloaded from the TSARP website at www.tsarp.org.

Air Emissions Down, Water Pollution Up
The amount of industrial pollution dumped into U.S. and Canadian lakes, rivers, and streams climbed 26 percent between 1995 and 1999, according to a report from the North American Commission for Environmental Cooperation. A 25 percent reduction in air emissions during that time was offset by the increased water pollution, a 25 percent jump in on-site releases to land, and a 35 percent surge in off-site releases to land — mainly to landfills. In total, toxic releases and transfers in the two neighboring nations did fall 3 percent during the five-year period. The state of Texas ranked second – behind Ohio – in top polluting jurisdictions. (Reuters 5/30/02)

Oil Leaks
Most petroleum leaked into the oceans near North America comes from land based sources, not big tankers, says a report from the National Research Council. Annually, about 29 million gallons of oil end up in the continent’s coastal waters due to human activity, with 15.6 million gallons coming from rivers and runoff, including street runoff, industrial waste, municipal wastewater, and wastewater from refineries. Oil deposited on the ocean surface by air pollution totals 6.1 million gallons. Recreational vessels dribble another 1.6 million gallons.

Spills from tankers and pipelines along the North American coast add up to just over 2 million gallons each year.

More than half of the land-based oil pollution in U.S. waters originates from the coastline from Maine to Virginia. Some 20 percent makes its way to the Gulf of Mexico.

Worldwide however, vessel and pipeline spills released 32.5 million gallons of oil and operational discharges such as cargo washing, which are illegal in North American waters, were responsible for 78 million gallons. Just 41 million gallons came from land based sources. (AP 5/24/02)