Three law students will join Bayou City Waterkeeper this summer and help us advance our legal work across the lower Galveston Bay watershed. We are excited to introduce you to them: Rosa Acheson, Tulane Law School (L ’21) Rosa is a rising second-year student at Tulane Law School in New Orleans, Louisiana. A longtime […]
Late last year Bayou City Waterkeeper opposed the TCEQ’s decision to allow the City of South Houston to amend its wastewater permit. The city sought to remove all safeguards on mercury discharges passing through its wastewater treatment facility – despite having past permit violations relating to its mercury discharge. The change reportedly will save South Houston $12,000 […]
Late last week, the Harris County District Attorney’s office requested $850,000 to hire four prosecutors and four staff members to join its Environmental Crimes division, which currently employs two attorneys and a paralegal. The division plans to dedicate two of its new attorneys to evaluating cases for trial and identifying smaller cases that can be […]
This editorial was originally printed in the Houston Chronicle. Our billion-dollar chance to fix Houston’s wastewater [Opinion] By Jordan Macha / April 25, 2019 The city of Houston is on the verge of settling more than a decade’s worth of Clean Water Act violations caused by its ailing wastewater treatment system. The settlement represents an […]
This editorial was originally printed in Galveston County’s The Daily News. Protect coastal wetlands to fight floods, pollution By Jordan Macha In Texas, we depend on water. From Lake Livingston down to Galveston Bay, a complex network of waters connects our region. We live among over 2,500 miles of bayous, 120,000 acres of wetlands, three […]
In Texas, we depend on water. Across the state, we live with a complex network of waters that connects our communities – ranging from our 80,000 miles of bayous, rivers and streams to our countless acres of wetlands. Currently, the Trump administration is proposing to remove whole categories of waterways of their Clean Water Act […]
Updated on April 8, 2019 to include information about Clean Water Act violations in Harris County based on Bayou City Waterkeeper’s analysis of EPA data. Last week, the Intercontinental Terminals Company (ITC) polluted local air and water with a massive fire at its Deer Park chemical storage facility — something of a habit for the company. In 2018, […]
In a comment letter submitted to the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality, Bayou City Waterkeeper opposes a proposed amendment to the City of South Houston’s wastewater treatment permit. If approved, the amendment will remove the facility’s current limits on the disposal of mercury into Berry Bayou, which feeds into Sims Bayou, the Houston Ship Channel, […]
Today is #GivingTuesday! A global movement to support local non-profits and, more importantly, an opportunity to unite our community around causes in which we truly believe. Bayou City Waterkeeper is partnering with Big Give Houston – a 24-hour crowdfunding event designed to empower every person to give back to their local communities by supporting the […]
On Monday, November 19th, the federal district court granted Bayou City Waterkeeper the right to intervene in the lawsuit filed by the EPA and the State of Texas! Their lawsuit, filed on the eve of our own citizen suit regarding the City of Houston’s years-long sewage violations, addresses the City’s longstanding failure to resolve the deficiencies in its wastewater treatment systems.