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Everyday tons of coal in Texas are burned to generate our electricity. There are plenty of federal regulations about what comes out of the smoke stack – but none for the ash waste – which contain heavy metals and other toxic contaminants.
The coal ash is dumped in landfills with little to no required safeguards, leading to contaminated soil and groundwater.
Now the Environmental Protection Agency is looking at regulating coal ash for the first time. [more]
NPR: A fire on an offshore oil platform in the Gulf of Mexico has been extinguished, the owner of the rig said Thursday.
The platform, about 100 miles south of the Louisiana coast, exploded Thursday morning. All 13 people aboard were rescued from the water in the second such disaster in the Gulf in less than five months.
Production Platform On Fire South Of Louisiana, U.S. Coast Guard Reports
The owner of the rig, Houston-based Mariner Energy, said the cause of the fire remains unknown and that an investigation is under way.
NPR: According to U.S. Coast Guard Petty Officer Bill Colclough, an offshore oil rig, Vermilion Oil Rig 380, owned by Mariner Energy, Inc., is on fire, some 90 miles south of Vermilion Bay, below Marsh Island, Louisiana.
In an interview with CNN, he said there were 13 people aboard the rig. All of them have been accounted for. Twelve of the employees have been placed in immersion suits. They will receive medical treatment at Terrebonne General Medical Center in Houma, Louisiana.
Eight Coast Guard rescue helicopters have been dispatched to the rig location. In addition, three Coast Guard cutters — Decisive, Manta and Skip Jack — are en route, with four civilian vessels.
As of last year, Mariner Energy, which is headquartered in Houston, “had interests approximately 240 blocks on the continental shelf and 100 blocks in deepwater,” and “net interests in more than 185,000 acres, primarily in the Permian Basin and Gulf Coast.”
It’ll take years to fully know the effects of the BP oil spill on wildlife in the Gulf of Mexico. One thing we do know now is what that wildlife was like before the 206 million gallons of oil spewed into the water. For that knowledge, we have the Smithsonian Institution to thank.
The Smithsonian Institution’s Museum Support Center is an anonymous beige warehouse complex just outside Washington, D.C. It doesn’t look like anything special until you get inside.
These buildings house all the things that don’t fit into the museums on the National Mall, in endless rows of jars and bottles and boxes. Among them is the world’s largest collection of invertebrates from the Gulf of Mexico, all floating in 150-proof alcohol. It’s a pretty comprehensive snapshot of life before the spill. [more]
Oil from the BP spill is still more than 100 miles off the Texas coast. But a special oil response team is still on the lookout. KERA‘s Shelley Kofler went on patrol with members of the team based in Corpus Christi to find out how Texas has prepared for oil spills here.
It works like this: Enter specifics, like the number of people in a household, how many showers are taken each day and how many times the dishwasher runs each week. After getting an idea of how much water is used, the city of Austin wants a pledge that people will work to reduce water consumption by 10 percent.
In early July, the freelance photographer Lance Rosenfield was standing on a public street in the town of Texas City, Texas, on the coast of the Gulf of Mexico. He was taking shots of street signs and of a nearby BP oil refinery — one of the largest in the country.
A few minutes later, as he filled his car’s tank at a gas station, Rosenfield found himself penned in by police cars. A BP security guard was close behind. And, beckoned by his colleagues, a local police official assigned to an FBI task force arrived as well. They asked Rosenfield about the story he was working on. Over the next 20 minutes or so, the photographer gave his name, address, driver’s license and Social Security number — and was convinced — or pressured, take your pick — to show his photographs. All of the material was shared with the BP security guard.
Bad weather is delaying BP’s plans to collect more oil from its blown-out well in the Gulf of Mexico. The company had been planning to hook up an additional ship to collect oil from the well, but the seas have been too rough (NPR).
Public Media Texas is based in Austin. We embrace our local presence in Austin with our hyper-local East Austin site 78702.org. We contribute to the discussion of the environment in the Southwest and the state of politics in Texas. We also seek to understand the dynamic between the U.S. and Mexico along our shared border. Along the way we search for artistic expressions that reflect and provide more perspective on the Lone Star state.
