All aboard!Today, groups of angry El Pasoans will venture down to the state's capital, Austin, for tomorrow's Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ) decision that will directly affect the air all El Pasoans may be breathing in the near future.
TCEQ is one of those agencies former governor George Bush and his successor, governor Rick Perry, just love because the name implies concern for the public and its environment but whose decisions are often the exact antithesis of that, serving instead the interest of industry without a modicum of regard for public health or safety.
A prime example is the decision of another great named Texas agency, the Texas Natural Resource Conservation Commission. (Ooh, it just gives me the "willies" knowing these Texas agencies exist out of concern for me and my environment. )
Shortly after assuming office as governor, George W. Bush, in political payoff to large campaign contributors, began staffing (or should I say "stacking") that commission's board of directors. Bush's first appointment was Ralph Marquez, a 30 year employee of Monsanto and former consultant for Texas Industries and vice president of environmental affairs for industry's Texas Chemical Council. Two other Bush appointees were eventually made with the result wolves were now in charge of security for the hens in the chicken coup.
Hence, there was little surprise when the controversial approval of a cement company's furnace 30 miles southwest of Dallas which had been incinerating a 100,000 tons of hazardous wastes per year, including large volumes of it from gulf area refineries and chemical plants, was cleared to up the public's annual dosage to 270,000 tons. Texas' Natural Resource Conservation Commission determined no additional risks to people would result.
Another fine example of Bush/Perry environmentalism came from our public guardian, the Texas Water Commission, which in 23 just days - without public process, a chance to question, or environmental impact statement - gave its approval to a company named Merc to dump 250 tons of raw New York City sewage per week (!) on a 102,000+ acre "ranch" just three miles outside the small (poor) town of Sierra Blanca, Texas.
This was waste formerly dumped in the ocean by NYC until outlawed by congress. And in trying to find a new home for its toxic sludge, the state of Oklahoma listened to its citizens protests and rejected it as did Arizona after samples revealed it contained high levels of petroleum and infectious disease.
But Texas has gained a reputation as "A pay toilet for industry".* And while some other states may listen to their citizen's concerns or reject shit because of its high toxicity, in Texas, water, environmental and resource conservation commissions are total misnomers. Such commissions are "open for business." It's an operating procedure George W. Bush proudly took with him to Washington, slashing his way through agencies like Environment Protection, Food and Drug, the FCC, FTC, etc, staffing their leadership with industry cronies who give not a fuck for the public interest.
And so today, a band of determined, upset El Paso citizens trek to Austin. Denied a hearing by the TCEQ last week, they will travel to a city 500 miles distant, to visit an "environmental quality" commission that will decide if the air we may be breathing in the future (air the TCEQ and Austin won't be breathing) shall once more contain the lead and arsenic particle excrement passed from the stacks of Superfund polluter American Smelting and Refining Company with a permit allowing them to reopen copper refining operations within the city limits of El Paso that have been closed down since 1999.
I don't know why I have a bad feeling about the decision that will be rendered tomorrow. Maybe it's because of the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality leader's warning to El Pasoans about Wednesday's meeting. It will "be conducted just like any other agenda hearing of this commission, with respect and civility, and so I ask that you all prepare for that and remember that," reminded chairman Buddy Garcia.
I guess you have to say something like that when rendering what will likely be a very unpopular populace decision; to avoid an uprising and save your ass. That, plus Texas' well earned reputation for being "a pay toilet for industry."
* "Pay toilet for industry" as coined by Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility
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5 comments:
"Pay toilet for industry" thank you. My complaint about central australia becoming a nuclear waste dump - and other similar obscenities.
While living in BC (Bloody Canadia) the fight was on to stop WA based energy development (SE2) from polluting the Fraser Valley. I think economics won that one.
I was also sort of sideways involved in relocating a massive waste dump at the top of the Fraser Canyon.
It was great for the towns involved, a real money spinner, but dumb all the same.
I didn't know about the 'pay toilet' concept then.
This makes me sick. If only there were some way of funneling the copper mines' bad air directly into TCEQ's offices.
I don't know which is worse: TX being the pay toilet or NV vying to be the nation's nuke dump. By the time the Bush admin is done, everything desireable will be sold or leased to the highest bidder; things not desireable (raw sewage, hazardous waste, arsenic particulates, etc) will be dumped on those poor unfortunates who are low on the asset totem pole.
Well, at least the El Pasoans who left today for Austin were spared Hillary's speech in your town tonight. Perhaps they will use the rest of the day (after the quickie judgment I'm imagining will take all of 10-minutes in the morning) to check out Austin real estate, since its bad air seems to be confined to various govt bldgs.
Well thanks for having a presence for the hearing, but I detect your dread of hearing that flushing sound. I just watched a FRONTLINE show on global warming- how Bush in his campaign speech said the US would adopt mandatory emissions standards.
Even let the head EPA lady go to a summit in Italy, only to have her come back & be told, uhhhh no, emissions issues are not on the table, never mind. Fast forward 7 years & W has even reversed some of the little environmental good his own Dad put in place (wetlands protections). Oh great! We are going backwards. they greatly attributed all this to Dicks backroom energy & environment dealings. No one thinks Bush is the evil mastermind.... he's the puppet. In any case...
his promises at the podium were (pardon the pun re global warming), so much hot air.
Not only did he not do what he said, he took it to new & extreme lows- doing the exact opposite.
Give em' hell. Maybe you can inject the "L" words in the conversation at the hearing...
litigation & lawyers. Environmental scoundrels
seem to respond to that, if nothing else.
So what was the outcome of this hearing?
Did you get to give input?
fran: Thanks for asking. I intend(ed) to post the results but just haven't gotten to it yet.
The hearing was streamed live from Austin via the EP Times website. It went precisely as I expected. It was a "serious" game of charades, but a game nonetheless.
I've been through this sort of BS before with WIPP - nuclear waste dump site planned (then approved after public input and descent) for Carlsbad, NM. It was obvious the gov't was dangling a carrot to the public, letting them think their opinions mattered (just as with national selection of presidential candidates).
Same with the nation's largest sewage dump Texas put in Sierra Blanca, TX was all a farce.
"Good paying jobs is the benefit of swallowing nuclear waste, NY sewage, and toxic lead, arsenic, and cadmium waste into the air from a copper smelter." Ah, more later, time permitting. TY again for asking.
Fortunately, there will likely be ligitation which may gives us a few more months of cleaner air than we may be breathing down the road.
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