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October 11, 2017

Environmental Headlines for the Houston Region: October 10, 2017

Featured Articles:

  1. As Harvey Repairs Continue, Bayou Partnership Considers The Future of Houston Greenspaces  (Travis Bubenik – Houston Public Media, 9/22/17. Photo by Don Geraci – Houston Public Media.) “A month after Harvey, there’s already talk about expanding Buffalo Bayou Park. Harvey damaged much of the park, but the group that takes care of it says the storm could be an opportunity as well.
    ‘Everyone’s saying that this is the new norm for Houston and for really the country and the world,’ said Anne Olson, President of the Buffalo Bayou Partnership. The non-profit the park saw almost 39 feet of water during Harvey and the storm destroyed hundreds of trees and damaged trails. The bayou’s greenways were designed to flood, but not to withstand this size of a flood.”  http://www.houstonpublicmedia.org/ 
  2. Research team maps Harvey’s toll on Galveston Bay (Alex Stuckey – Houston Chronicle, 10/3/2017. Photo by Yi-Chen Lee – Houston Chronicle.)
    “The water samples taken in recent weeks will be used to test for sewage, pharmaceuticals, metals and other chemicals, for example, that may have reached the bay because of Harvey. And as more and more troubling reports are made about what has spilled as a result of Harvey, it seems unlikely the bay has been spared. Indeed, that night, hours after the group had finished collecting water for the day, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency announced that Harvey caused a leak in the waste pits, one of the city’s most dangerous and vulnerable Superfund sites. A sample taken by the EPA found concentrations of dioxin – one of the most potent human carcinogens – at 2,000 times higher than the level at which the EPA requires cleanup. The EPA said Thursday that the dioxin in the waste material isn’t easily dissolvable but it could migrate further into the surrounding sediments. Supplemental sampling will conclude to what extend it migrated, if at all. Experts also are concerned about the amount of raw sewage that may have reached the bay after Harvey, as wastewater treatment plants struggled to remain operating both during and after Harvey.” http://www.houstonchronicle.com/
  3. EPA to propose ending Obama- era Clean Power Plant: report (Julia Manchester – The Hill, 10/4/2017) “The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is ready to repeal the centerpiece regulations former President Obama instituted to fight climate change,  according to a department document obtained by Reuters.Reuters reports that the document was distributed to the agency’s Regulatory Steering Committee, and that it proposes to repeal Obama’s Clean Power Plan.President Trump has already announced he would pull the United States out of the Paris climate agreement, and he launched a review of the Obama plan in March. The Clean Power Plan was the main way Obama had hoped to meet U.S. obligations to reduce climate emissions under the Paris deal.
    This would be the first major action taken by Trump to roll back the program.” http://thehill.com

EcoNotes

  • 5 October
    • Former Head of EPA Looks to Businesses, Courts, and Citizens to Fight Climate Change (Sabin Center for Climate Change Law – State of the Planet) http://blogs.ei.columbia.edu
    • Snyder: Help recovery by consuming sustainable Gulf seafood (Lora Snyder – Houston Chronicle) http://www.houstonchronicle.com
  • 4 October
    • The EPA Is Preparing to Repeal Obama’s Signature Climate- Change Rule (Adam K. Raymond – New York Magazine) http://nymag.com
    • EPA Scraps Cleanup Plan for Texas Coal Plants (Elena Saxonhouse – Sierra Club) http://www.sierraclub.org
    • Whooping Cranes Take Wing Earlier in Spring Thanks to Climate Change (Alex Furuya – Audubon) http://www.audubon.org
  • 28 September
    • Poll: Majority says climate change responsible for severity of hurricanes (Taylor Lorenz – The Hill) http://thehill.com
    • ‘Flesh-Eating Bacteria’ From Harvey’s Floodwaters Kill a Woman (Maggie Astor – New York Times) https://www.nytimes.com
  • 20 September
  • 18 September
    • Scientific models saved lives from Harvey and Irma. They can from climate change too (Dana Nuccitelli – The Guardian) https://www.theguardian.com
  • 15 September
    • Valero ‘significantly underestimated’ benzene leak at Houston refinery (Jordan Blum – Houston Chronicle) https://www.energyvoice.com
  • 11 September
    • Houston’s Floodwaters Are Tainted, Testing Shows (Shelia Kaplan and Jack Healy – New YorkTimes) https://www.nytimes.com/
  • 20 August
    • Trump’s decision to allow plastic bottle sales in national parks condemned (Jessica Glenza – The Guardian) https://amp.theguardian.com
  • 20 July
  • 17 July

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