Naveena Sadasivam
Dying Oil Companies’ Parting Gift: Millions in Clean Up Costs
Why is Michael Bloomberg Giving $2.6 Million to Elect a Railroad Commissioner in Texas?
Hint: It's not about trains. “The most important climate election in the nation” may be at stake.
This story was originally published by Grist. Sign up for their daily newsletter, The Beacon. Oil and gas companies burn off billions of cubic feet of natural gas into the atmosphere every year in Texas alone. It’s both wasteful—the gas … Read More
One Texas-Sized Loophole is Letting Lone Star Polluters Off the Hook
Texas facilities emitted 174 million pounds of pollution above permitted limits last year.
This story is co-published with Grist. Sign up for their daily newsletter, The Beacon. Unauthorized pollution has become the norm in Texas. Every single day last year, at least one industrial facility in the state emitted more toxic pollutants than … Read More
A Battle is Brewing Over a Trump EPA Official’s Confidential Emails
Will Michael Honeycutt’s legacy as an “honest broker” at the EPA be undercut by his efforts to weaken cancer protections in Texas?
This story is co-published with Grist. Sign up for their daily newsletter, The Beacon. When the Trump administration tapped Michael Honeycutt to lead the Environmental Protection Agency’s Science Advisory Board in 2017, environmental and public health advocates expected that he … Read More
Texas Relaxed Environmental Enforcement During the Pandemic, State Data Show
Even as the agency reduced enforcement, it continued processing permits that allow businesses to pollute up to certain limits at about the same rate that it did last year.
This story was originally published by Grist. The Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ) is one of the largest and most influential environmental protection agencies in the country. With an annual budget of $400 million, it polices about 400,000 polluting … Read More
Is a Dam Failing in Your Neighborhood?
How to use this map: You can sort dams by their condition — satisfactory, fair or poor — and whether they’re regulated by using the menu to the left of the map. Make sure you select criteria for both condition … Read More
Dammed to Fail
An Observer investigation finds that unregulated dams across Texas are increasingly failing — putting people and property in jeopardy.
An Observer investigation finds that unregulated dams across Texas are increasingly failing — putting people and property in jeopardy. by Naveena Sadasivam April 1, 2019 Maria Campos wasn’t going to wait till the dam behind her house burst and … Read More
A New Study Shows that the Oil and Gas Industry is Wasting a Shocking Quantity of Natural Gas in Texas
Frackers are burning millions of dollars worth of natural gas — releasing hazardous chemicals and greenhouse gases into the air, worsening climate change and creating health risks.
A new study by researchers at the University of Southern California and San Francisco State University found that oil and gas operators in South Texas burned almost 160 billion cubic feet of natural gas — enough to power 2.5 million … Read More
El Paso School Consolidation Exposes More Kids to Lead and Other Hazards, Parents Say
Parents in a low-income neighborhood claim the school district is putting their children at risk by sending them to a campus where researchers found lead levels posing a “moderate to high risk” in 2016.
Hilda Villegas’ daughters Bernice and Katherine are grown now, but she still shudders when she thinks about their years at Frederick Douglass Elementary School in El Paso. The school is located next to railroad tracks and a metal recycling facility, … Read More
Millions of Plastic Pellets in Lavaca Bay? Formosa Says it’s Just ‘Trace Amounts’
After decades of polluting the air and water in Point Comfort, Formosa is now being confronted about its release of millions of plastic pellets.
Once a week, Diane Wilson launches her kayak on Cox Creek, a brackish stream near Point Comfort that feeds Cox and Lavaca bays, and paddles for four to five hours looking for white, grain-size plastic bits called nurdles. Used in … Read More