You want to know what you’ve been breathing? This summer, two University of North Texas geography graduate students did something no one had done before. Amanda Caldwell and Susan Waskey added up all the emission reports submitted to state and federal government by the three cement plants and adjacent steel mill in Midlothian. They found that between 1990 and 2006, nearly 1 billion pounds — 986,509,069 — of harmful air pollution was released into the North Texas skies, including 10,000 pounds of mercury. [cough, cough] Check out their whole report.
16 comments
Yeah, we all have that on our minds….ha,ha,ha! I am still breathing just to let the worry warts feel better. Such crap! Non news issue, next story or post please. I am getting bored.
Clearly, the reduction in oxygen hasn’t effected your ability to form coherent thoughts, or to focus on important subjects, George.
Interesting, and CO2 emissions aren’t even included in the TRI (CO2 is a manufacturing AND combustion byproduct in cement kilns).
I do believe I commented to a friend of mine on the level of pollution put out by the Midlothian plants back when we were discussing the possible opening of new coal burning plants in our area by TXU.
I used the Midlothian pollution as a firm reason why we didn’t need to add to the problem with coal burning plants and my choice to go 100% renewable for a REP.
Kudos to the research team!
France is using nuclear energy and it is cheaper for citizen’s bills. At least socialist there don’t want to pay for higher bills.
You no coal, no nuclear, no oil people are worst than socialists. You have no real energy knowledge. You people probably think food comes from the grocery store. Wrong! The land and farmers.
You urban/city people need to get out and join America.
Where do they put their toxic nuclear waste, Viva?
Word: Texas is bigger than France.
And, btw… our wind farms are working just beautifully.
mercury is natural…it can’t be bad for you!
Bethany, 75% (15,000 tons) of French waste is stored at a central lab in France pending a permanent location. 25% is sent to Russia for burial in the already-contaminated Siberian wastelands. Overall, the French are about where we are in searching for a final repository; tentative location, facing down local opposition.
Oh, and I’ve learned to ignore people who are so light-years ahead of me that they start most sentences with “You…people” without knowing who in the wide, wide world of sports they’re a-talking to. (Gratuitous Blazing Saddles reference.)
So yeah, nuclear is awesome!
And for the earlier poster who enjoyed remuneration from the plant at some point, and who surmised that the pollution was much ado about nothing: in an earlier frame of mind in the early 90’s, I volunteered with the Dallas Sierra Club on this matter. Jim Schermbeck and Sue Pope were instrumental in cranking up awareness (I’m unsure of their titles/roles).
Their most credible sources seem to book-end this latest, most credible report by the two grad students. Those sources were local ranching ladies: downwind, multi-generational, original conservationists, not at all the hairy-legged tree-hugging bumper-sticker-proclaiming Sierra types. These ladies asked for help in getting publicity for their home-grown statistics and photos of livestock increasingly born with birth defects, etc.
Bottom line: no matter how much Ma Economics played a role in shutting down the plants, I’m tickled that Jim and Sue and those dear ranching ladies are able to see the end of this pollution in their lifetimes. Sometimes good people in a good cause really can make a difference.
anyone tracking the increase in asthma rates in kids AND adults in North Texas? Anyone concerned about the increase in the level red pollution days and ozone days? I get so sick of ostriches and conservatives who stick their head in the sand and deride conservationists as tree-hugging liberals. These are the same people who laughed at Christopher COlumbus and his zany round earth theory or Newton and that silly gravity thingy. Geeeesh!
Let’s have some love for nuclear energy.
I love smart women. And these two grad students plainly fit that descrption. I can tell you, on the worst polution days, when I go to the forest my breating and lung capacity becomes normal. I, who grew up suffering athsma. It’s a no-brainer why people cannot breathe. Thanks to Ms Caldwell and Waskey for quantifying one big bomb blast contributor. Did I mention how much I love smart women?
@Ftr:
Awareness was a good thing resulting in more eyeballs to scrutinize the data, which was excellent and representative, based on the tests. A trial burn is only a snapshot of conditions at the time of testing. I’m not a toxicologist or modeler running numbers, just a scientist performing actual measurements. Renumeration? Of course. You’d want to get paid for working on a stack platform or managing the talent on such a project. Maybe it helps to know there was someone on site who gave a **** doing the measuring and performing the tests as accurately as possible because he empathized with the ladies whose critters were suffering. But I still maintain that the % level of trucking and rail transported chemicals were a greater health risk than the parts per billion of hazardous gases exiting the stacks. Just because the perceived source is gone, doesn’t mean that monitoring should end. There’s a lot more data to collect and be interpreted.
But hey, Jim and them, good on ya.
How many internal combustion engines do all yall own and operate? Multiply by a million or so. Control that and you’ll breath better.
And plant a tree or two, would ya?
now if we can just get the smoking ban in place, maybe i can throw away my inhaler and advair…