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.
In support of the 2015 Clean Water Rule, Bayou City Waterkeeper filed an amicus brief in support of upholding the rule and its protections for Texas coastal prairie wetlands. These wetlands give communities across the region a range of irreplaceable benefits valued at billions of dollars: stormwater detention, coastal protection from storm surges, and water filtration for regional bayou networks and Galveston Bay, as well as environments for local wildlife, sport, and recreation.
Bayou City Waterkeeper filed suit against the City of Houston for over 9,300 potential Clean Water Act violations on Friday, 21 September 2018. For at least the last five years, the City has failed to comply with its permits by allowing raw or partially treated sewage to be discharged from its wastewater treatment and collection systems into our public waterways throughout the Houston area.
Eight months after Hurricane Harvey, City Council approved a new ordinance, proposed by Mayor Turner to increase elevation requirements for new buildings. Beginning in September 2018, new construction must be built two feet above ground, elevating homes and commercial buildings out of the 500-year floodplain
While discussions of how to protect our coastal communities on the upper Texas coast is nothing new, the hurricane season of 2017 has strengthened the need and rhetoric around providing protection from ever-increasing storms and its surge impacts. For years, the silver bullet coastal barrier option has centered around the coastal spine — commonly known as the Ike Dike — and what could be one of the costliest public infrastructure projects in U.S. history.
The Texas Coast is home to a multitude of wetland varieties, which play an important role in the health of our ecosystem and supports our economy. In a recent report by the Dogwood Alliance, “Treasures of the South: The True Value of Wetland Forests,” it’s estimated that Texas’s wetland forests are worth approximately $53.9 billion […]
While discussions of how to protect our coastal communities on the Upper Texas Coast is nothing new, the Hurricane Season of 2017 has strengthened the need and rhetoric around providing protection from ever-increasing storms and its surge impacts. For years, the silver bullet coastal barrier option has centered around the coastal spine – commonly known as the Ike Dike – and what could be one of the costliest public infrastructure projects in U.S. history.
Were the impacts of Harvey in Houston a result of no zoning in the city of no limits? Zoning and the lack of zoning have colored discussions about how Houston develops for over a hundred years. Zoning is a veritable lightning rod for animated discussions about development in our city. Zoning has detractors from various sides. There are those who decry any kind of controls on development, and to them zoning would be the absolute worst kind of regulation. On the other hand, zoning has its detractors amongst the new urban cognoscenti, who consider zoning as an impediment to the mixed-use walkability that defines livable cities.