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July 17, 2016

Environmental Headlines for the Houston Region: July 17, 2015

Featured

  1. Harris County warns of possible contaminated drinking water; more testing set (Kim McGuire – Houston Chronicle, 7/6/2016)
    “Harris County Public Health officials have warned a group of people who live near a Channelview Superfund site not to drink their tap water after dioxins were possibly detected in some private wells. County officials, however, acknowledged that a laboratory error requires them to retest the water and the initial results from 100 private wells may prove to be incorrect. The second tests are expected to be conducted Thursday and results should be available in three weeks. In the meantime, health officials sent a letter dated July 1 to the residents near the San Jacinto Waste Pits advising them to drink bottled water until the second test is concluded.”
    www.houstonchronicle.com
  2. City: Telling everybody about the hazardous chemicals stored all over town wouldn’t be safe (Swamplot, 7/7/2016)
    “A Houston Chronicle attempt to get more info about the surprise chemical warehouse fire that turned Spring Branch Creek blood red earlier this year has been denied by the city, writes Matt Dempsey this week. The city has reportedly appealed to the state attorney general’s office to block the records request, as well as the paper’s broader request for “the name and address of every facility that files a hazardous material inventory form.” The early May fire spread from a residence on Laverne St., igniting still-unquantified amounts of still-unnamed chemicals stored at the Custom Packaging & Filling warehouse behind it — a business that didn’t show up on the list of storage facilities the Chronicle was able to compile from local emergency planning groups, after the city and state blocked a previous request for similar info last year. ”
    http://swamplot.com
  3. Design of White Oak Bayou in Houston getting another look (Houston Chronicle, 7/13/2016)
    “When Bob Lee looks out at the White Oak Bayou, he sees a waterway that could be so much more. Lined by concrete surfaces to better channel floodwaters, the bayou northwest of downtown draws walkers and bikers to its walkways, but much of the corridor is hardly a scenic gathering place. In contrast, Houstonians flock to nearby Buffalo Bayou Park, where the waterway flows through a natural landscape of trees, plants and grasses. “It would be so nice to be walking along something that was more like Buffalo Bayou,” said Lee, a resident of Houston’s Heights neighborhood for more than 30 years who sits on the White Oak Bayou Association board. The Houston Chronicle (http://bit.ly/29vzsUP ) reports that now, aging infrastructure and costly repairs are prompting the Harris County Flood Control District and a local redevelopment authority to take a second look at the White Oak Bayou’s design.”
    www.chron.com

EcoNotes

  • 16 July
    • Service Interruption Planned For METRORail Green/ Purple Lines To Make Way For Super Bowl Preps (Guidry News)
      www.guidrynews.com
  • 15 July
    • U.S. weather forecaster sees likelihood of La Nina August-October (Marcy Nicholson – Planet Ark News)
      http://planetark.org
    • Texas Gets Boost in New Mexico Water Fight (Jim Malewitz – The Texas Tribune)
      www.texastribune.org
    • Coal Is ‘Clean,’ According To Republicans’ Draft Platform (WFPL)
      http://wfpl.org
  • 14 July
    • As sea levels rise in a changing climate, how best to protect coasts? (Jan Ellen Spiegel – Texas Climate News)
      http://texasclimatenews.org
    • Community Design: How a New Pocket Park Came to the Near Northside (Kate Cairoli – Off Cite)
      http://offcite.org
    • Commercial Harvest of Greater Amberjack Closing in Gulf of Mexico Federal Waters July 17th (Oyster Radio)
      http://oysterradio.blogspot.com
    • Gulf of Mexico Recreational Gray Triggerfish Federal Fishing Season Will Remain Closed Through December 31, 2016 (NOAA)
      www.halfhitch.com
    • EPA Playing Politics with Herbicide Study, Requires Oversight (Kenneth Artz – Heartland)
      http://news.heartland.org
  • 13 July
    • Design of White Oak Bayou in Houston getting another look (Houston Chronicle)
      www.chron.com
    • Drainage Disasters: Fixing Houston’s Flooding Hotspots (Dave Fehling – Houston Chronicle)
      www.houstonpublicmedia.org
  • 12 July
    • Proposal To Hugely Expand Gulf “Flower Gardens” Concerns Oil And Gas Drillers (Dave Fehling – Houston Public Media)
      www.houstonpublicmedia.org
    • Sinkhole Warnings Don’t Faze West Texas (Jim Malewitz – The Texas Tribune)
      www.texastribune.org
    • 2016 Ozone Season update (Adrian Shelley – airCurrent News)
      http://airalliancehouston.org
    • Supreme Court to Consider Report on Rio Grande Case (Susan Montoya Bryan – ABC News)
      http://abcnews.go.com
    • Research shows perennials would reduce nutrient runoff to the Gulf of Mexico’s dead zone (Phys.org)
      http://phys.org
    • SAWS prepares to deliver water from desalination plant (Selina Nadeau and David Ibanez – KSAT 12)
      www.ksat.com
    • Cleanup continues from 2015 deadly flooding in Texas (Elizabeth Findell – Hastings Tribune)
      www.hastingstribune.com
    • It’s Alive! ‘Living Wall’ Hopes to Flourish at UT, If It Can Survive the Summer (Mose Buchele – KUOW)
      http://kuow.org
    • What Makes Transit Successful? Survey Says It’s Frequency, Reliability and Shorter Travel Times (Leah Binkovitz – The Urban Edge)
      http://urbanedge.blogs.rice.edu
  • 11 July
    • Industry towns, like Pasadena, challenge environmental activists (Mike Snyder – Houston Chronicle)
      www.houstonchronicle.com
    • Gulf Coast Bird Observatory awarded $10,000 conservation grant (The Facts)
      http://thefacts.com
    • Crude-by-Rail Plummeting In Texas But Critics Insist Risk Of Accidents Remains (Dave Fehling – Houston Public Media)
      www.houstonpublicmedia.org
    • A perfect pair? Well, on climate policy, Texas and ExxonMobil rarely agree (Randy Lee Loftis – Texas Climate News)
      http://texasclimatenews.org
    • Gulf of Mexico shrimp fishery to re-open off Texas on July 15 (Cliff White – Seafood Source)
      www.seafoodsource.com
  • 8 July
    • Will this year’s hurricane forecast be more accurate? (Futurity)
      www.futurity.org
  • 7 July
  • 6 July
    • Harris County warns of possible contaminated drinking water; more testing set (Kim McGuire – Houston Chronicle, 7/6/2016)
      www.houstonchronicle.com
    • Flesh-eating bacteria easy to avoid, just swim in the Gulf, not bays says expert (Ben Raines – AL)
      www.al.com
    • Fixing Our Transportation System with EESI (Earth Share)
      www.earthshare.org
    • Cross-Country by Rail in Photos (Earth Share)
      www.earthshare.org
  • 5 July
    • Reducing water pollution with microbes and wood chips (Laura Christianson – SF Gate)
      www.sfgate.com
    • East Enders eager for redevelopment of former KBR site (Nancy Sarnoff – Houston Chronicle)
      www.houstonchronicle.com
  • 1 July
    • Scientists to Congress (politely, in so many words): Get real on climate change (Bill Dawson – Texas Climate News)
      http://texasclimatenews.org

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