Posts by Downwinders At Risk
Thanks to You, We Raised TWO Months of Clean Air Work Yesterday
Grassroots groups live and die with their support on the ground. They're not affiliated with a well-heeled state or national organization that can subsidize their work. Without continuing sustenance from regular folks, they're doomed.
Downwinders at Risk is very lucky. We have a solid base of regular folks who appreciate what we do. They tolerate our constant flow of e-mails and posts. They show up at critical hearings and council meetings when we ask them. And they also fund our one and only employee.
For 20 years now, we've been able to fund the only full time staff person to do clean air work in DFW because these people – people like you – believe we have, and can, make a positive difference – in air quality, in policy-making, in protecting and expanding the rights of citizens who dare to fight back against Very Bad Ideas.
Yesterday a lot of you once again showed-up to give us a hand. Big time. And we're so grateful.
Downwinders at Risk had its best-ever one-day fundraising event yesterday as a participant in the Communities Foundation's North Texas Giving Day, collecting $5,115 in just 17 hours. This is twice the amount that the group had set for the day's goal, and it pays for not one, but two months of clean air organizing in North Texas. We're overwhelmed with this vote of confidence in our work and will try to do it justice in the battles to come.
A sincere thank you to everyone who contributed and made such a day possible. It lets us know that we must be doing something right, despite the challenges we face all the time to try and keep doing good work.
And if you didn't get a chance to help out yesterday, but still want to contribute to Downwinders, we've got our own contribution webpage here that you can use anytime, anywhere.
Onward through the smog……
Today is Giving Day: How We’re Earning Your Donation
Today is the Day
Downwinders At Risk is proud to participate in Giving Day, the Communities Foundation's Region-Wide, Non-Profit, Day-Long Fundraising Marathon.
Contribute $25 or more to Downwinders at Risk's work through DonorBridgeTX.org to help us raise the $2,500 we need to pay our Director for September.
Just go to the special Downwinders contribution page at the Giving Day website and click and send your donation.
But Do It Now – Today Only
How We're Earning Your Giving Day Donation in September:
1) Medical professionals speaking out on air pollution in DFW
This Saturday afternoon September 21st, at 4 pm, will see the debut of a presentation by a new group of DFW medical professionals organized around air pollution issues called CLEAN AIR STAT at Arlington's annual Ecofest.
Dr. Robert A. Wiebe, MD, a former Director of Emergency Services at the Children's Medical Center of Dallas and Division Chief of Pediatric Emergency Medicine at the University of Texas, Southwestern Medical Center,will be walking citizens through the long list pollutants in the air we breathe, risks to their health, and what they can do about it. It's he first time a group of local DFW medical professionals have gotten together and made a presentation like this to the public.
Downwinders at Risk jump-started this new group of doctors and nurses concerned about air pollution because we know we need more professional medical testimony to win our fights. We're proud to announce its debut and look forward to helping it grow.
2) The best gas drilling ordinance in North Texas
Next Thursday, September 26th at 1:30 pm, the Dallas Plan Commission will hold its final public hearing on a new gas drilling ordinance for Dallas and then vote to send the the final product to the City Council.
The result is expected to be the single most protective set of rules for gas drilling and production ever drafted by a North Texas municipality.
This Dallas ordinance represents three years of work by Downwinders and its allies. We made a decision to take a stand in Dallas and build a new model ordinance that we could then use in other Barnett Shale cities. It's persistence that's paid off.
Now we have to protect what we've built from City Council opponents who want to weaken the ordinance. We're not through yet.
3) Continuing oversight of the Exide lead smelter clean-up
After a successful nine month fight to close the outlaw Exide lead smelter operating in the middle of Frisco, Downwinders has been helping its affiliate Frisco Unleaded to monitor the clean-up of the contaminated site.
We've exposed rampant pollution problems and warned about the dangers of leaving landfills full of lead waste in the Stewart Creek flood plain and upstream of Grand Park. We're also trying to get the Frisco City Council to understand that it can't wait for the state or EPA to act. The City of Frisco is going to have to take the lead if it wants the best, most modern clean-up that it can get.
We've been working with Frisco Unleaded to make a big announcement on October 1 about an opportunity for Frisco residents to express their support for a full and comprehensive clean-up coming up in November. Stay tuned.
4) Fighting for a better regional clean air plan
On September 5th, the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality hosted its first meeting on a new clean air plan for DFW to once again address the region's chronic smog problem.
Of all the local North Texas environmental groups, only Downwinders at Risk sent a representative to listen, and then ask important questions about Austin's new plan.
DFW has been in violation of the Clean Air Act for smog for 23 years in a row. The state has built at least four clean air plans during that time – none of which has succeeded. Only Downwinders is working with experts on building a new model for predicting air pollution problems in DFW that would provide the first real alternative to Austin's dubious planning abilities.
In the past, we've used these clean air plans to successfully reduce emissions from the Midlothian cement plants, local cars and East Texas coal plants. We're gearing up again for what's expected to be a three year battle over a clean air plan that really does the job.
you and your family's lungs.
Thanks very much.
We can't do this work without your support.
Give Cleaner Air a Chance This Thursday
7 am to Midnight Thursday, September 19th
Downwinders At Risk
Local, Determined, and Effective
Our Goal: $2,500 –
one month's salary for Director Jim Schermbeck
Every year the Dallas-based Communities Foundation sponsors a region-wide 18-hour fundraising marathon called "Giving Day" for local non-profits. This year, it's happening on Thursday.
From 7 am until 12 Midnight on Thursday you can contribute to Downwinders' work at the Foundation's special Giving Day website.
Donations of $25 or more can grow with matching funds and special rewards throughout the day. It's a great way to see your support of our work go further – sometimes by a lot.
This year, our goal is to raise a month's salary for our Director, Jim Schermbeck. That's $2,500. We know that's a lot for us in one day, but we think we have a good case to make.
Jim is the only full time professional staff person in Dallas-Fort Worth devoted to helping citizens in their fights for clean air.
His salary is where most of our budget goes. We hope you agree this is money well spent.
In the last five years, Downwinders has become one of the most effective and influential environmental groups in DFW. A list of our victories includes:
The cessation of hazardous waste burning at the Midlothian cement plants in southern DFW.
The closing or conversion of all seven older dirty wet kilns in Midlothian.
The closing of the outlaw Exide lead smelter in Frisco.
The denial of the awful Trinity East gas drilling permits in Dallas.
It's this track record of success that earned the group the very first Green Source Grassroots Environmental Leadership Award in 2012, voted on by our peers in the local environmental community.
We believe our ability to fund a professional staff person to assist local residents in their fights has been a major factor in our success.
Polluters and their allies usually have armies of lawyers, PR staff, and paid-for "technical experts." Citizens not so much.
Jim Schermbeck is Downwinders's attempt to balance the equation. He helps us bring decades of experience to every new fight. He helps find valuable resources and expertise. He helps teach citizens how to win.
DFW is the 4th largest metro area in the US. There are almost 7 million people who live here. We've had illegal levels of smog for at least the last 23 years. We host the largest concentration of cement manufacturing in the US, as well as the densest urban gas drilling field.
All this, and yet Jim is the only person who's available to offer full-time help for DFW residents who are fighting to get safe and legal air to breathe.
He's not on the staff of any large state or national group. His salary is raised by himself and the Downwinders' board of directors who all live in North Texas.
Our focus is here, where you live. Because it's where we live too.
We know many of you can't come to all the meetings and events we promote. But you still want to help us do our work. Thursday's Giving Day offers a great opportunity for anyone that can give $25 to help us a lot.
We tote the note for a local professional organizer because we believe it makes a decisive positive difference in the air we breathe and the rights we win.
If you agree, please show your support this Thursday by donating $25 or more to Downwinders at Risk at the Giving Day website.
Thanks very much for your support. We can't be successful without it.
You Don’t Want To Sit This One Out: Help Us Fight the Dallas Gas Wars
Here's how to help us build the best gas drilling ordinance in the Barnett Shale by the end of the month in three easy steps.
1) TOMORROW – BUTTS IN SEATS FOR THE BEST ORDINANCE IN THE SHALE
Attend the public hearing tomorrow, THIS THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 12th at 1:30 pm on a new Dallas gas-drilling ordinance sponsored by the Dallas Plan Commission and speak-up for the most protective rules. We really need citizens there to counter new industry-organized opposition.
We won the Trinity East votes. But that was a fight that protected us from past mistakes and deals.
Now, it's about getting ahead of the curve and building a citizen-friendly ordinance to determine how or if gas drilling can take place in Dallas in the future.
And the agenda for this Thursday has some of the most critical items on it in need of better regulations – "Air Quality," "Water Quality," "Compressor Stations," and "Pipelines" – so public participation is important.
Please click here for talking points you can use at this Thursday's hearing, including information about precedent-setting measures like Mandatory electrification, air pollution off-sets required, no flood plain drilling, and a ban on compressor station.
Help bring this thing home. Be there Thursday.
2) SEPTEMBER 19th – MONEY FOR THE FIGHT
The single most effective thing Downwinders does is put staff in the field to assist citizens.
Help us do that very thing for the month of September with an easy e-donation next Thursday, September 19th, during the local Communities Foundation's annual North Texas Giving Day.
On Giving Day, every donation you give to Downwinders of $25 or more will be multiplied if you donate to us through the internet at www.DonorBridgeTX.org. Plus, organizations are eligible to receive a portion of $1.5 million in "bonus funds" — making every dollar you give go even further than usual.
Simply visit the site anytime between 7 a.m. and midnight next Thursday, the 19th, search for Downwinders at Risk Education Fund by name on the list (there are hundreds of groups) and click "Donate Now."
Our goal for this year's Giving Day is to raise the $2500 we need to pay our organizer's September salary.
Jim Schermbeck is the only full-time clean air staff person in DFW and he's working overtime in September to make sure we get a truly protective gas drilling ordinance presented to the Dallas City Council.
Jim doesn't get paid with a check from a headquarters in Austin or DC. He gets paid by you – the people who live in North Texas for whom we work.
Help us keep having a big impact. Give generously next Thursday, September 19th. Don't worry, you'll be getting a reminder…or two.
3) SEPTEMBER 26th: BUTTS IN SEATS TO SEND THE BEST ORDINANCE IN THE SHALE TO THE DALLAS CITY COUNCIL
Attend the very last Plan Commission public hearing on a new Dallas gas drilling ordinance, Thursday, September 26th at 1:30 pm at City Hall. This will be the citizen send-off to the City Council for what we hope will be a new model for communities throughout DFW, the Barnett Shale, and beyond.
We need to get the very best ordinance we can out of the Plan Commission in order to keep it from being watered down by members of the City Council.
Remember, when we upheld the Trinity East permit denial, WE ACTUALLY LOST THE TRINITY EAST VOTE 6 to 9.
We still don't have 8 votes or more on the record for a progressive stance on gas drilling.
It'll be much harder for hostile council members to weaken the proposed ordinance if they have to oppose the original Plan Commission recommendations that have gone through this hearing process. Momentum will be with us if we leave the Commission with the Gold Standard of Gas Ordinances.
Three years ago, Downwinders looked around the Barnett Shale and decided we needed to do something about the air pollution caused by our region becoming the Appalachia of gas drilling. We picked the Dallas Gas Wars as our place to make a stand. We knew that if we were patient and focused, we could succeed in making substantial progress.
We're on the very verge of that happening. Please stick with us a little longer and see this thing through to the end. It's going to be worth it. Thanks for your support.
Who Were the Most Environmentally-Friendly State Legislators this Past Session?
Austin-based Environment Texas released its bi-annual list of best and worst legislators for the just finished session. It's based on the recorded votes of members on eight or nine of the most high-profile environemental bills, good or bad, that were up for consideration in front of the entire Chamber.
The Tea Party rebellion of 2010 has decimated the ranks of moderate Republicans who at lest tried to pay lip service to environemental protection. Now those are fighting words for the majority of Reublicans serving in Austin. Consequently, the lists are very lopsided.
Best in the Senate
In the Senate, three members drew a 100% perfect scores:
Sens. Rodney Ellis (D-Houston),
Jose Rodriguez (D-El Paso)
Sylvia Garcia (D-Houston).
Best in the House
In the House, twenty reps voted for major environmental bills 100 percent of the time:
Alma Allen (D-Houston)
Senfronia Thompson (D-Houston)
Hubert Vo (D-Houston)
Ron Reynolds (D-Houston)
Lon Burnam (D-Fort Worth)
Nicole Collier (D-Fort Worth)
Dawnna Dukes (D-Austin)
Elliott Naishtat (D-Austin)
Eddie Rodriguez (D-Austin)
Helen Giddings (D-Dallas)
Mary Gonzalez (D-El Paso)
Naomi Gonzalez (D-El Paso)
Marisa Marquez (D-El Paso)
Joe Moody (D-El Paso)
Roland Gutierrez (D-San Antonio)
Trey Martinez Fischer (D-San Antonio)
Justin Rodriguez (D-San Antonio)
Abel Herrero (D-Corpus Christi)
Poncho Nevarez (D-Del Rio)
Rene Olveira (D-Brownsville)
Worst in the Senate
Sens. Kelly Hancock (R-North Richland Hills)
Donna Campbell (R-New Braunfels)
Worst in the House
As the Texas observer noted – "Rep. Jonathan Stickland (R-Bedford) scored a whopping 13 percent. But he had stiff competition. Sixteen other GOP representatives voted for the environment just 22 – 25% of the time. These included plenty of North Texas Reps, including Arlington's Bill Zedler, Frisco's Pat Fallon, and Plano's Van Taylor.
From Fort Worth to Britain By Way Of the NYT: A Warning on Fracking
Letter in the New York Times reacting to British protests over frackign in that country:
Re “Britain’s Furor Over Fracking,” by Roger Cohen (column, Aug. 27):
The British are in for a rude surprise if they allow their countryside to be fracked. I should know; I was raised in Fort Worth
My parents were just pushed out of the home they owned and loved for the last 40 years because of the toxic fumes that bubble up from the ground under their house. If they kept their windows closed, their home would become a combustible bomb from all the gases piling up inside.
My father has breathing problems, and my mother has skin rashes that fade when they visit me in California. In Texas, homeowners don’t own the mineral rights on or under their land, so companies just walked into their neighborhood and drilled the whole area. Local officials warn parents not to let their children play outside, yet it’s much worse if they stay inside.
Last year, my parents agreed to walk away from their home. They saved their lives, but they lost their home. No one wants to buy in and risk his life. I hope that the British can stop this kind of tragedy from ruining their children’s future. You see, I can never go home again.
MARLA BURKE
Greenbrae, Calif., Aug. 27, 2013
This is what we're all working to avoid in Dallas. Please be at Dallas City Hall at 1:30 pm this Thursday to speak out in favor of the most protective gas drilling ordinance in the Shale.
Earth, Wind, (Water) and Fire: This Thursday’s Hearing on a New Dallas Gas Drilling Ordinance Covers a Lot
There are only two more Plan Commission public hearings on a new gas ordinance before it goes to the full City Council. The first is this Thursday, September 12th, at 1:30 pm at City Hall on the 6th floor. The other is Thursday, September 26th at the same place and time.
After the last one, they vote on a draft to send to Council and go home, so if you want them to include good stuff in between now and when they finish up in 2 weeks, you probably need to come to this Thursday's hearing, which, you know, only covers minor stuff like "Air Quality," "Water Quality," "Compressor Stations," and "Pipelines ."
That's right, all those critically-important topics are on the table this Thursday at the Commission, both in the morning workshop and in the afternoon public hearing.
And because we're doing such good work and establishing some important precedents in Dallas, the gas industry is mobilizing opposition and trying to roll those precedents back.
You've already seen local congressman "Smokey Joe" Barton try and recruit oil and gas engineers to defend the Trinity East permits. Now District 3 Council member Vonciel Hill is becoming an industry puppet for a lax drilling ordinance with her presence in a letter in Monday's Dallas Morning News from a local minister who's church just happens to want to negotiate a gas lease in southwest Dallas – you know, the part of the city that looks like it's in the Hill Country?
To the Editor
This column accurately laid out the facts on the huge benefits of the oil and gas boom in our nation’s economy. We need more convincing reports like this.
Southwest Dallas lags far behind the rest of Dallas in jobs and community development. A strong coalition of southwest Dallas pastors recognizes this disparity.
The Dallas City Council has a stewardship responsibility to consider all the facts about the Barnett Shale drilling here, and not just listen to a vocal few. Our District 3 councilwoman, Vonciel Jones Hill, has favorably received a joint report from the coalition supporting oil and gas business in Dallas.
Southwest Dallas needs a financial boost. The major churches, colleges, institutes, and nonprofit operations out here all have a stake in the economic success of southwest Dallas. This means drilling on the large plots of open land. Because this region is underserved and undeveloped, there is much open land where drilling can be done without disturbing the few neighborhoods.
Only our City Council can send the prosperity away to other neighboring cities. The council should instead work with the coalition for improved economic benefits for southwest Dallas.
Robert Summers, southwest Dallas
We'll bet dollars to donuts that this letter wasn't inspired with the Rev. Summers his own self. For one thing, the Rev. has been totally absent up to now in the city-wide debate over gas drilling for the last three years. No appearances in front of the Plan commission or the City Council. But what do you also bet that we'll be seeing the Rev. Summers downtown on Thursday afternoon, making his debut testifying on behalf of more industry-friendly drilling regulations?
Please don't think this thing is a done deal. It's not. We need to keep our momentum going across a finish line that's now actually in sight. We know it's a drag, it's inconvenient, it's undemocratic, and it generally sucks, but we need Dallas residents to come back on Thursday and urge the Commission to keep taking proactive, protective stances toward urban drilling. What are the talking points for this Thursday? We're so glad you asked:
AIR QUALITY
Citizens' Recommendation 1: Make electric motors mandatory in all phases of drilling and production of gas – keep the current Dallas provision.
One of the single most important steps as policy makers you can take to reduce the amount of air pollution produced by the gas industry is to require the use of electric motors during all phases of production.
Some of the largest sources of smog-forming and toxic air pollution within the gas industry are large diesel engines. Use of these engines is justified in rural areas far from the electric grid. Within the city of Dallas, connecting to the grid should not be a problem. Industry representatives have said that electric alternatives exist for all diesels used in the industry save those in their trucking fleets.
Citizens' Recommendation 2: Recommend the Council continue to explore the establishment of a local off-sets program for air pollution caused by gas facilities.
Traditionally, in a smog-plagued region like DFW, EPA would require new polluters to “off-set” their pollution increases. For every ton of new pollution a large facility or power plant is going to emit, it would be required to reduce at least a ton of pollution in return. Off-sets are an established part of the Clean Air Act and work to put a brake on any new sources of air pollution that might disrupt air quality progress.
However, the facilities used to mine and process natural gas are diffuse over a large area. They’re not centralized like a power plant or a factory, and so under current federal law these facilities are not included in the federal off-sets program.
In the cover letter to the City Council that accompanied the Dallas Gas Drilling Task Force recommendations, Chair Lois Finkelman took favorable note of the idea of closing this loophole and establishing a local off-sets system and urged the Council to further explore the issue. Since then, off-sets have been endorsed by George W. Bush’s Regional EPA Administrator.
All we want from the Plan Commission is a recommendation that the Council go forward with discussions with the EPA on how the City could establish such a local off-sets program – the first one of its kind in the nation.
WATER QUALITY
Citizens' Recommendation: Ban gas drilling and production in flood plains to protect surface water quality.
A 2012 University of Texas report on fracking and groundwater contamination concluded that fracking was more likely to cause surface spills of chemicals than other types of drilling.
In its landmark 2006 planning document, forwardDallas!, the City described how important it was to keep the Trinity River flood plains from being overrun with development,
More than 10,000 acres of the city’s floodplain, however, is vacant and should be protected from development through acquisition, restoration and dedication of open space. As was made painfully clear along the Gulf Coast during the 2005 hurricane season, the loss of flood plains and other natural recharge areas not only negatively impacts water and air quality, it fails to minimize damage during floods. In addition to flood stabilization, reclaiming and restoring these areas would provide sites for recreation, wildlife habitat and buffers for riparian areas while improving water quality and lowering the heat island effect.
Water and open space are precious natural resources in Dallas in 2013. We need to protect our available inventory from contamination by a process that has a higher documented rate of spills and leaks than conventional drilling by keeping it out of our flood plains.
COMPRESSOR STATIONS
Citizens' Recommendation: Continue to ban centralized Compressor Stations.
It was clear the Dallas Gas Drilling Task Force thought the idea of the City hosting large centralized compressor stations was out of the question, and we believe the Plan Commission should maintain that stance on behalf of air quality and public health.
Southlake's gas ordinance, from which the Task Force borrowed heavily in formulating its own recommendations, has banned these facilities entirely.
The state awards what's called a Standard Operating Permit for compressors that allows them to emit up to 250 tons of air pollution a year without going through any public hearing or notice process. These are massive facilities, capable of churning out more smog-forming Volatile Organic Compounds every year than any single cement plant in Midlothian. The rejected Trinity East Compressor and refinery would have instantly become Dallas’ 10th largest air polluter the day it opened.
If the Plan Commission decides instead to regulate where and how these huge industrial polluters should be allowed to do business, we urge you to restrict their location to the appropriately zoned Industrial-Manufacturing area of the city with the same safeguards you provided for the location of gas wells in the city limits.
PIPELINES
Citizens' Recommendation: Gathering lines should be odorized for public safety.
Currently there’s no provision in the Dallas ordinance to odorize gathering lines from well head to compressor station, even though these lines are often more numerous than any other kind of gas pipeline. Leaks can’t be detected by smell alone the way they can in commercial gas lines, even though gathering lines are often more shallow, less sturdy, and can run closer to protected uses than larger pipelines.
These next two meetings of the Plan Commission have the potential to produce the single most protective gas drilling ordinance in the Barnett Shale. It's a turning point. If you can give an hand by coming down and saying you want these five things in the ordinance this Thursday, it would help the effort a lot.
Thanks so much for your continued support.
Expert: Clean-Up at Frisco Lead Smelter Site Should Be 100x Stricter
(Frisco) — Representatives of local groups that were instrumental in shutting down the ill-fated Exide lead smelter in Frisco say the company is now using the wrong environmental standard to direct the clean-up of the facility and surrounding property.
Their primary source is testimony from an Austin engineer hired by the City of Frisco that says the smelter decontamination should be governed by toxic contamination standards that are 100 times stricter than the ones currently being used.
"Based on evidence already in the record and cited by the City's new expert, its clear that Exide is trying to get away with a cheaper, less protective clean-up than the Agency's own regulations demand," said Colette McCadden, the Chair of Frisco Unleaded, the citizens group that campaigned for almost a year to successfully close the last secondary lead smelter in Texas.
She referred to testimony submitted by Austin-based engineer William Wheatley in July on behalf of the City of Frisco for Exide's bankruptcy proceedings. In it, the former Director of the Waste Permits Division for the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ), concludes that the company is erroneously using a less-protective classification for categorizing the groundwater running underneath the smelter site.
That classification is the basis of all decontamination and closure efforts at Exide, including how to deal with a still-active landfill full of lead waste.
In his testimony, Wheatley explains what this mistake means in practical terms when it comes to cleaning up lead contamination at the site:
"Exide is operating under the assumption that a Class 3 groundwater designation will be approved and, as a result, that remedial action levels for soils at the site will be less stringent (in most cases, soil action levels based on Class3 groundwater would be 100 times the levels that would be required for Class 2 groundwater).
It is my opinion that existing information clearly demonstrates the groundwater at the site is Class 2 and significantly more stringent action levels are therefore appropriate and necessary."
Jim Schermbeck, Director of the clean air group Downwinders At Risk accused Exide of purposely trying to get by with a cheaper clean-up in Frisco because it's already bankrupt. He applauded the City for hiring an independent expert who could provide oversight of the company's claims, and double-check the state's assertions as well.
"The city is finally providing a much needed second opinion on the way Exide is conducting its clean-up of the smelter site. We hope it listens to its own expert and demands a clean-up that's 100 times better than it has been to date."
At issue is whether there's sufficient groundwater flow underneath the smelter site to categorize it as a Class 2 or Class 3 groundwater resource under state rules.
If a well produces more than 150 gallons of water a day, then it's a Class 2 resource. Below that number and it's a Class 3.
The difference is not only a soil clean-up standard that's 100 times stricter, it also means more work for Exide in cleaning up existing groundwater contamination that's not acceptable when the higher standard is applied.
Wheatley doesn't mince words in calling out the company's mistake, stating,
"(Exide's engineering consultants) concluded that groundwater at the site is not impacted. However, as discussed below, that conclusion is based in part on the characterization of the uppermost groundwater bearing unit as a "Class 3" groundwater resourceIt is my opinion that a "Class 3"designation is unsubstantiated and technically incorrect based on currently available information which clearly indicates that the groundwater is a 'Class 2' resource."
Frisco Unleaded and Downwinders both used Wheatley's report for the City to request that the state reject Exide's planned remediation of its active landfill in official comments that were submitted last Friday because, they said, that plan is based on the wrong groundwater classification.
After a swift campaign that closed the smelter last year, it's been a more difficult task to deal with decades of toxic contamination. In June, Downwinders and Frisco Unleaded released City of Frisco reports that showed widespread lead-contaminated waste in Stewart Creek, including parts of the City's planned "Grand Park."
Citizens say it's unacceptable to leave tons of lead waste behind in Frisco, as Exide wants to do, because it would mean the creation of an economic and public health "dead zone" in the middle of town.
"We know we have to get this right the first time because we night not get a second chance, "said McCadden, who's lived in Frisco since the mid-1990's. "We have to demand the most protective clean-up we can get under the law."
Happy DFW Non-Attainment Day!
It came a little later than usual this year, but the final dog days of August finally churned out the inevitable DFW Non-Attainment Day on Saturday. And nature was just cheeky enough to wait until right before the state's open house on yet another clean air plan for the area.
Non-Attainment Day is the (so far) annual day when one lucky regional air monitor registers its fourth "exceedence" of the old 85 parts per billion smog standard left over from the 1990's, signaling an official violation of the federal Clean Air Act and meaning that DFW is still mired in high levels of ozone.
On Saturday it was the Denton Airport monitor that saw an 8-hour average of 85 ppb, one that matched Friday's result as well. Together, the two readings combined with another 85 ppb from August 20th and a 90 ppb level from early July to produce four readings of 85 ppb or more by the end of the month. That makes it official. It's the 17th year in a row that DFW hasn't met the old smog standard.
Although it's bad news that we're once again in violation of an obsolete smog standard, this summer's cooler weather and rain has kept smog down to levels not seen since 2007. If Denton is the only monitor to record an official violation of the 85 standard, that will be the fewest number doing so since 2007 as well, when there were two. Last year there were five and the year before that, six.
But as of 2015, the region will need to get ozone levels down to no more than the new EPA-approved level of 75 ppb if it wants safe and legal air. A plan to help the region do that is supposed to be drafted by the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality, although no one knows exactly when that process will start.
As it happens however, the TCE is hosting a "public information meeting" on such a new air plan at the public-friendly hour of 10 am this coming Thursday at the North Texas Council of Governments headquarters in Arlington at 616 Six Flags Road. Don't expect any explanations for what that is, because there aren't any. However, it is most assuredly not a meeting of the local North Texas Clean Air Steering Committee, the advisory group charged with assisting the TCEQ in putting together a clean air plan. That would require more concern for clean air than the state can muster right now, with a deadline still a whole 16 months away.
With the summer trending well up to now, we suspect the TCEQ crew thought they could come up to DFW from Austin without having to use the dreadful N-word to describe DFW's condition. Now, not so much. It's an embarrassment too. If the region can't reach attainment when the weather is on your side, what's it going to be like when real a Texas Summer returns? 2013 was absolutely the best shot we had at finally seeing the numbers drop significantly. And now that's been blown.
Of course, if the last state clean air plan had worked the way Austin told us it would, we wouldn't even be writing this blog post because DFW would have reached attainment status last year. But the plan didn't exactly work the way Austin said it would. in fact, it made air quality measurably worse.
Mayor Mike Rawlings’ Statement on Trinity East and Urban Drilling in Dallas