Articles about Environment
Leading Off (1/9/11)
City Manager: ‘Time To Deal With Flood Control’: This one is behind the paywall, but in short, City Manager Mary Suhm is preaching to the council about how Dallas is desperately in need of a major flood control overhaul. The central project proposed is a $302 million drainage tunnel. But the pump stations on the Trinity River levees also need to be reconstructed, and there are additional repairs and improvements that have been left undone for years. In all, Suhm estimates the total bill for flood control measures will be around $1 billion, and 40 percent of this year’s bond program may be allocated toward flood control projects.
Deported Dallas Teen Back With Family: The Oak Cliff teen who was mistakenly deported to Colombia was back with her mother and grandmother late Friday night and spent all day Saturday with them at an undisclosed location. Reports indicate that the girl, Jakadrien Turner, 15, was adjusting well to life in Colombia, finding a boyfriend, friends, and allegedly coming home pregnant.
Texas Drought Has Killed Estimated 500 Million Trees: That via The Texas Forest Service which believes that after the driest year on record and the second hottest, 10 percent of the state’s trees have died.
Is Solar About to Become Practical?
According to John Farrell of the Institute for Local Self-Reliance, solar energy will become an affordable option in Dallas in 2019. He assumes that solar costs in 2011 are $4 per Watt installed, that solar costs decrease 7 percent a year, and that grid electricity costs increase 2 percent a year. To argue with him, go here.
(H/t Daily Dish)
First Trees Planted at the Park
We sent intern Jessica Melton out into the frigid air to capture the first trees being planted.
The crew prepares the River Birch trees for planting.
The Woodall Rodgers Park Foundation planted the first of 322 trees for the upcoming Park this morning at 10:30.
TurningPoint Foundation donated the first 25 River Birch trees. With the new trees came a new tree trust, which will allow donors who provide $25,000 or more to the Foundation to pick which trees they want to plant and select an area to place them in the Park.
One of the donors, Kristin Schor of the Gaedeke Group, says while her company already sponsors plant life around the United States, the people in her company are excited to see what they can do in their own backyard.
“We want to make a difference,” Schor says. “Even if it is one tree at a time.”
The trees are being planted in organic dirt placed on top of lightweight filler, because dirt alone would be too much weight for the bridge to handle, says Joanna Singleton of Jackson Spalding Communications.
Planting will be going on all day today and Thursday, but there’s not much else to see on top of Woodall Rodgers Freeway right now except a lot of organic dirt.
If you’re interested in what the Park will look like when it’s finished, the Foundation’s website has a bird’s eye view of what they’re planning for it. —Jessica Melton
Leading Off (11/21/11)
Tough Times For Dallas Tech Sector: In a new Forbes survey of technology jobs, Texas doesn’t fare well and Dallas fares worse, something the magazine admits is “shocking,” considering the area’s long-time role as a telecommunications powerhouse. Nonetheless, Dallas, “generally a job-created dynamo,” Forbes writes, “has seen roughly a quarter of its high-tech jobs go away, due primarily to losses in telecommunications carriers and in manufacturing of communications equipment and electronics.”
Hairdresser Murder Still Mystery: On November 3 around midnight, Elizabeth Lightfoot purchased two packets of ramen noodles at a Tom Thumb at the corner of Preston and Belt Line. An hour and a half later, and the woman was dead, her body and automobile burned. No one knows what happened or who did it, but what is baffling is that there is little evidence (sub. req.) that any of the typical explanations – sexual assault, robbery escalating to murder – apply.
Dried Up Lakes Reveal Underwater Ghost Towns: At a number of lake sites throughout the state, water receding from the drought has uncovered long submerged remnants of towns once flooded. Depleted Lake Whitney, south of Fort Worth, uncovered Native American tools and fossils. Underneath Lake Texoma, foundations from the long lost town of Woodville, Oklahoma are now visible again for the first time since the Red River was flooded to create the lake in 1944.
TXI Gets Permission To Burn Even More Hazardous Waste
Earlier this month, we learned that North Texas has the worst air in the state, even worse than Houston’s. Now the folks at Downwinders at Risk inform us that TXI has gotten permission from the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality to burn 12 new kinds of hazardous waste in its cement kiln — and it got this permission without ever serving public notice, fielding comments, or holding a hearing, and based solely on data from other cement plants. From Downwinders:
“This is the worst case of intentionally avoiding public participation since 1987, when the same company began burning hazardous waste without public knowledge” said Jim Schermbeck, director of Downwinders at Risk, the DFW-based group originally formed to fight the burning of wastes in Midlothian cement kilns in 1994. “State and company officials have learned nothing from the past 20 years except how to further exclude the public from decisions about these cement plants affecting our health and property.”
And:
TCEQ gave TXI the new permit without any public notice or chance to challenge it despite the fact that TXI is on the EPA’s “Watch List” of 1600 “High Priority Violators” identified last week through an investigation by National Public Radio.
If you breathe air, you should read this entire story, and you should be upset.
Leading Off (11/14/11)
Trinity River Ground Zero in Texas Drought: The first in a promised series of articles about Texas water in the Houston Chronicle kicks off on the Trinity River which, the piece points out, does not share the history or mystique of some of the state’s more well-known rivers, such as the Rio Grande, Brazos, Neches, Red, or Guadalupe. But the Trinity is Texas’s “hydraulic heart,” and in the current drought, it is nearly tapped.
Father Shoots Wife, Holds Kids During Three Hour Police Standoff: Two four-year-old boys survived a horrific shootout and standoff with police yesterday, as their father shot their mother six times and then barricaded himself in his apartment in West Dallas with the children for three hours before he finally surrendered. Though Martinez is in critical condition at Methodist Hospital, remarkably, she stumbled to her mother’s house after the incident to call for help.
Highland Park School District Hits $1 Billion Robin Hood Milestone: The outflow of tax dollars from Highland Park Independent School District to other Texas public school districts has hit the $1 billion mark.
“Gasbags” Group Undeterred by Fracking Study
Sure, a just-released UT study found no direct connection between natural-gas fracking and groundwater contamination. Coming as it does on top of a recent Fort Worth report showing little to no adverse impact on air quality from gas drilling, you might think drilling and fracking opponents would begin to notice a pattern here. But if you did, you’d be wrong.
“We continue to believe there are many, many things we will continue to blame on drilling and fracking,” said Ted “Teddy” Angus, coordinator of the Garland-based Gasbags Against Drilling and Fracking group (GADF). “I mean, what about all those earthquakes we’ve been having? You think they just up and happened, for no good reason at all?
“And what about the wildfires, which coincidentally have been increasing, just as gas drilling has gotten really, really popular?” Angus went on. “We also think fracking has something to do with the ice caps and global warming. We haven’t figured out exactly what–not yet, anyway. Our List committee is compiling a list of other things drilling and fracking probably causes, too, and we will be issuing that list to the news as soon as we can’t think of any more things.”
Leading Off (11/7/11)
Did Fracking Cause Oklahoma Earthquakes? The largest earthquake ever recorded in Oklahoma stuck Saturday night, registering a 5.6 magnitude, with tremors felt as far south as Plano, Frisco, and Irving. That initial quake was then followed by ten aftershocks. And while gas companies claim there is no proof of a connection between drilling and and earthquakes, a position backed up (sort of) by the Oklahoma Geological Survey, there’s this: earthquakes in Oklahoma have spiked from 50 in 2009 to 1,047 in 2010; and this report on natural gas drilling in the United Kingdom did find an connection between earthquakes and fracking.
Eight Occupy Dallas Protesters Arrested, City To Investigate Confrontation: Video seems to show a police officer trying to rip a flag away from an Occupy Dallas protester, and when the protester resists (rather eagerly), the two tumble to the ground. That’s when hell broke loose: pepper spray and multiple arrests. Now the city is investigating the incident.
Tyson Chandler Won’t Return to Mavericks: That’s because of the new collective-bargaining agreement (still under-negotiation) that is increasingly likely to be the product of the ongoing NBA negotiations. “For years, the Lakers have been able to win championships and re-sign their players and keep them there so they can go out for another title,” Chandler says. “Now, to put that deal in place after we win ours, I don’t like it one bit.”
North Texas Is Now Smog Capital of Texas
North Texas has beaten Houston for the honor of having the worst air quality in the state. Three of the four people in the Rogers household have issues with asthma, so this makes me sad. The full release from Downwinders at Risk follows after the jump, but here’s a bit that jumped out at me:
What’s remarkable to many long-time observers is that, compared to DFW, Houston’s non-attainment area for smog has more than twice as many monitors spread over a much larger geographical area, and hosts a fourth of the nation’s petro-chemical industry, and yet “white collar” DFW was still able to record ozone levels worse than it.
Remarkable indeed. This is the sort of thing that will keep businesses from moving here. Making our air safe to breathe ought to be a primary focus of the North Central Texas Council of Governments and of every mayor in the region.
Leading Off (10/31/11)
Can Water Recycling Make Fracking Less Wasteful? Texas in the midst of one of the worst droughts in state history, which is having a lasting effect on Texas trees. But natural gas fracking pushes on, a process which uses up to 2 or 3 million gallons of water per new well. Now companies are trying to figure out how to recycle that water, and they are having some success.
Life Just Got Scarier for Mexican Burros: If you’re traveling out west be sure to shoot a burro. That’s because state officials don’t like all the donkeys that are crossing the border from Mexico illegally, prompting park rangers in Big Bend to shoot and kill 130 of an estimated 300 burros to date. Defenders of the beasts of burden blame the plentiful shrubs and other forage-able foods on the United States side of the boarder which offer incentive for the opportunity-starved Mexican donkeys to take their lives into their hands and make the dangerous trek to America.
Jerry Jones Is Insane: I wasn’t going to post about sports. The last five days have been too traumatic for local sports fans. It’s time to turn our attention to other things for a little while. But then, there is this brief piece by David Moore in which Cowboys owner Jerry Jones says that “There is absolutely no alarm in me” after last night’s rout in Philadelphia. “This is not about re-inventing everything we do,” Jones continues. “This is about being disappointed about not winning this football game.” Okay, Jerry. Whatever you say.
Do Some Good Today with Crowdtilt
After all the name calling and angry words on the blog yesterday, I thought we might need something to make us all feel a little better. So I present an opportunity. I know a guy who started a great crowd-funding site called Crowdtilt. The idea behind Crowdtilt is that you start a campaign, set an amount of money you need raised, and then set the number at which the campaign “tilts.” No credit cards are charged unless the campaign gets to that tilt amount.
So here’s where you can do good. The Deep Ellum Urban Garden group needs about $25,000 in order to transform the lot into a garden. They have set the campaign to tilt at $10,000. Yesterday, the campaign was around $4,700. The people at Crowdtilt gave of their own money and did a match campaign. Today, it’s at $6,795. Make yourself feel better, donate a few dollars. And then get your friends to donate a few dollars. See, don’t you feel a little better?
Leading Off (9/12/11)
Tarrant County’s Red River [Water] Shoutout Suffers Setback: In the latest battle in the North Texas Water Wars (which will surely heat up in the next decade or so), Tarrant Regional Water District filed a law suit meant to tap resources in Oklahoma, but that effort was rejected by the 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. Now Tarrant, as well as other local water districts, will have to consider purchasing water from Oklahoma and developing other in-state resources.
Study Relates Safer Intersections to Red-Light Cameras: Must to Tim’s chagrin, a study has concluded (sub. req.) that red-light related crashes have decreased at intersections where cameras intended to catch red-light runners have been installed. In all, crashes fell by 27 percent, and Dallas saw a 38 percent decline.
Local 9-11 Roundup: Among yesterday’s local memorials, fire fighters climbed 110-story Renaissance Tower; drivers of a truck filled with pyrotechnics for a Discovery Channel show brilliantly parked the vehicle at DFW Airport, prompting a bomb scare; and the Bush Presidential Center announced it would like to gather 9-11 stories.
Good News and Bad News – Monday Sports Roundup: The bad news? Dirk’s German national team has crashed out of the Euro championships. The good news? C.J. Wilson nabbed his 16th win yesterday in a routing of the A’s that puts the Rangers 2.5 up on the Angels. The Cowboys? I don’t know. Something of late makes me enjoy Jerry’s misfortune. I know. It’s terrible.
Clearing the Air: Cowtown Gas-Sites A-OK
Back in August of 2010, the city of Fort Worth commenced a third-party air-quality study of its natural-gas-production sites. The study cost more than $1 million to conduct. Well, the results of the big study came in today and … guess what? The report found that these sites pose no significant health threats, and that the existing setbacks (from residential areas) are working just fine, thanks. How soon will it be, though, before the Gasland-style activists find some reason to say it’s all a big bad cover-up?
My Take on Angela Hunt’s “Bums”
As Tim said, Twitter is pretty powerful. Take, for example, Angela Hunt’s weekend tweets about the “bums” in Main Street Garden. Based on what she had to say, it looks like some changes may be coming to Main Street Garden. But I do take issue with some of what’s being said about the homeless in the park.
I use the park every day. It’s where I met most of my friends. It’s where I take the dog for exercise. And, yeah, it’s where I run into some homeless. But I rarely find them aggressive. Most of the time, they’ll make a comment about the dog, and that’s it. Sometimes, I’ll engage them in conversation. (Some of the best conversations I’ve had occurred out there with homeless people.) And sometimes, but rarely, they ask me for money. But if I say I don’t have cash, they leave it at that. The only real problem that comes from them hanging out there is that they’ll leave chicken bones behind, which is really dangerous for the dogs. But I don’t avoid the park because of the homeless population.
Rawlings Thinks Big–Really Big–On the Trinity Project
Like former Dallas mayor Tom Leppert, Dallas Mayor-elect Mike Rawlings worked as a top business guy,
stresses fixing DISD, has even hired Leppert’s deputy chief of staff to be his right hand. But at a Meet the New Mayor deal last night at the Trinity Center–just before delivering a rah-rah stemwinder on the Trinity River Corridor Project–Rawlings replied to a questioner by saying that while Leppert is “a good person to emulate,” there are differences between them.
“I came from a background of civic service. … I’ve been here for 34 years of my life,” said Rawlings (pictured in photo by Jeanne Prejean). “The understanding I have of the city … I have a different management style. I’m a person who believes in understanding the trees to understand the forest. … I’m also a big believer in creativity, in trying new solutions.”
Then, darned if Rawlings didn’t go out front and do a bang-up impression of the former mayor selling the Trinity (without once mentioning that pesky toll road). Letting the people know “the Trinity will be done” is one of his main goals, Rawlings said. The undertaking will have more impact on commercial real estate than any project in Dallas history, he added. The “doubters” need to be convinced that it’s “real and do-able,” the mayor-elect went on, partly by breaking it up into manageable pieces with a sense of urgency. When all that’s done, he concluded, someday people will proclaim: “Dallas is the center of the Western hemisphere!” Tom Leppert–or Zig Ziglar–couldn’t have said it any better.
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