Environment
Inside the Coordinated Attack on a North Texas Wind Farm
As Development Transforms the Hill Country, a Sand Mining Operation Worries Residents
A local dispute over a company’s proposal to dredge 900,000 tons of river sand is the latest sign of rampant growth in the Hill Country.
Nowhere else on the planet is quite like the Texas Hill Country. The 17-county region is home to more than a dozen endangered species and the largest bat colony...Read More
Report: Oil and Gas Production Is Making People Sick in Rural Texas
“The price of living near oil and gas shouldn't be giving up your health.”
Sue and Jim Franklin’s double-wide mobile home at the foot of the Davis Mountains in far West Texas is usually sealed up tight with the air conditioner blasti...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
Sinking Land and Climate Change Are Worsening Tidal Floods on the Texas Coast
More than 10,000 homes along the Texas coast will flood at least 26 times a year by 2045, researchers say.
For many folks who call the Texas Gulf Coast home, the coming and going of the tides is just part of the rhythms of salt life. There are high tides and there ar...Read More
How Disaster Recovery Overlooks the Poor
Texas’ recent plan for allocating $5 billion in federal disaster recovery grants neglects the poorest people harmed by Hurricane Harvey, activists say.
Early in his career, David Hall came to see the Rio Grande Valley’s most impoverished communities as an important prism for viewing Texas’ civil rights stru...Read More
Industrial Wood Processor Accused of Making East Texans Sick May Get to Pollute Even More
Residents near German Pellets facilities in Woodville and Port Arthur allege that air pollution and fires have made them sick, but the state regulatory agency has done little to help, the Sierra Club says.
In late 2014, Lisa Sanchez and her husband, Tony, sold their 13-acre ranchette in The Woodlands, where they lived in a single-wide trailer and raised rescue hor...Read More
Despite Public Health Risks, Trump’s EPA to Roll Back Regulation to Prevent Methane Leaks
The Obama-era regulation is meant to curb leaks of methane, which is about 30 times more potent than carbon dioxide.
Last week, the staff of the environmental nonprofit Earthworks were on a retreat in West Texas when Sharon Wilson, a Dallas-based organizer for the group, decid...Read More
No Resolution in Sight For Ranchers and Farmers Fighting Over San Saba River
The prolonged battle has highlighted a major flaw in Texas water management: State policies mostly don’t recognize the connection between surface water and groundwater.
Why is a 40-mile stretch of the San Saba river running dry during the summers? That was the central question at a Texas House Natural Resources Committee hearin...Read More
Austin’s on the Wrong Side of the 100th Meridian
The invisible line that divides the arid western part of the country from the wetter eastern half is on the move, and that has important implications for the Texas capital.
Meet Robert Lee. Not the Confederate general, the town. Robert Lee, Texas is a ranching community of 1,025 that lost its only source of water to the second-wors...Read More