Articles tagged: pollution
COVID-19 Could Be a ‘Double Whammy’ for Those in Pollution Hotspots
Texans who breathe polluted air are more likely to have preexisting health issues. That means they're at a higher risk of getting seriously ill from the coronavirus.
Air pollution across the globe has sharply dropped, an unintended silver lining of COVID-19. But as coronavirus continues to spread, Texas environmental advocat...Read More
As Port Neches Plant Smolders, Trump Rolls Back Safety Rules for Chemical Plants
After a deadly explosion in the town of West in 2013, Obama implemented stricter safety rules for chemical plants. Trump’s EPA has just undone them.
Early Wednesday morning, inside a chemical manufacturing complex just southeast of Beaumont, a building erupted in a ball of flames, injuring eight people and s...Read More
The Creature of Martin Creek Lake Won’t Die
The Martin Lake coal plant in East Texas is the biggest sulfur dioxide polluter in the nation. And unlike other regional super-polluters, this one is still chugging along.
From above, the Creature takes the shape of a spider: Its eyes are smokestacks, its legs spindly railways stretching from the semicircle of clearcut pines into ...Read More
Julián Castro’s Climate Plan Addresses Environmental Racism
Other candidates focus on broad policies that affect everyone. That’s undeniably good, but it elides that fact that environmental injustices have historically hurt poor, minority communities the most.
At Wednesday night’s climate crisis town hall with the 2020 Democratic presidential candidates, a nurse from Brooklyn asked former San Antonio Mayor Julián C...Read More
TCEQ Report Could Pave the Way for Chemical Plants to Emit More Hazardous Air Pollutants
A new assessment from the agency downplays the risks of ethylene oxide, a known carcinogen.
When the wind blows across Port Arthur, a predominantly African American city on the Gulf Coast, it’s likely carrying toxic gasses like carbon monoxide, sulfu...Read More
Nurdle by Nurdle, Citizens Took on A Billion-Dollar Plastic Company — and Won
A federal judge ruled that a “serial” polluter in Lavaca Bay can face more than $100 million in penalties.
A federal judge ruled last Thursday that Formosa Plastics, a petrochemical company outside Port Lavaca, can be held liable for violating state and federal water...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 hou...Read More
TCEQ is Finally Doing Something About an East Texas Polluter
After years of inaction, the state environmental agency is poised to force German Pellets to install pollution controls at its Woodville processing plant.
One day in late November, a cloud of white smoke swept through Woodville, a small East Texas town of 2,500 about 55 miles north of Beaumont. It was a moment tha...Read More
After Decades of Living with Pollution, Relocation Program Offers Corpus Christi Residents a Way Out
For decades, residents of Hillcrest were exposed to chemicals from nearby Refinery Row. With “mixed feelings,” residents are now moving out of the neighborhood.
For decades, the residents of Hillcrest — a poor, primarily Hispanic and black neighborhood on the north side of Corpus Christi — have been dealt blow after...Read More