Terrence Henry reports on energy and the environment for StateImpact Texas. His radio, print and television work has appeared in the New York Times, The Washington Post, The Atlantic, NPR, The Texas Tribune, The History Channel and other outlets.
He has previously worked at The Washington Post and The Atlantic. He earned a Bachelor’s Degree in International Relations from Brigham Young University.
Water is becoming scarcer in Texas, and the solutions being passed around as of late are varied. Desalination, conservation and new reservoirs are all on the table. Another less, ummmm, palatable solution that is already being used in Texas? Treating “effluent” (i.e. waste water) to be used again for drinking, cooking and cleaning.
A new video op-ed in the New York Times by filmmaker Jessica Yu looks at the psychological barriers to adapting waste water for re-use, featuring cockroaches and a creative “Folgers switch“-style test marketing of bottled treated affluent called Porcelain Springs.
Every summer, residents of Houston enjoy what you could call “recycled” water sent down the Trinity River from their neighbors to the north in Dallas. It works for them, so why not do it everywhere we need water? “In Israel, more than 80 percent of household wastewater is recycled, providing nearly half the water for irrigation,” Yu writes. “A new pilot plant near San Diego and a national “NEWater” program in Singapore show it’s practical to turn wastewater into water that’s clean enough to drink. Yet, in most of the world, we are resistant to do so.”
You can watch the video above, which is culled from clips from a forthcoming documentary, Last Call at the Oasis.
The Deepwater Horizon rig seen before the explosion.
Multiple Coast Guard helicopters, planes and cutters responded to rescue the Deepwater Horizon 126 person crew after an explosion and fire caused the crew to evacuate.
Long slicks of oil could be seen for miles after the spill
Local fisherman who signed on to help with the oil clean-up operation on May 1, 2010.
Oil boom barriers that were expected to stop the spread of oil lie washed up on the beach after heavy swells and winds hit the coast of Louisiana on April 30, 2010.
Rescue crews hydrate a Northern Gannet bird that was covered in oil on May 1, 2010. A giant oil slick threatened economic and environmental devastation as it closed in on Louisiana’s vulnerable coast.
Workers prepare a ship loaded with oil barrier booms as they wait for heavy swells and wind to subside before continuing the oil clean-up operation. The wind started to strengthen and blow the 600-square-mile slick directly onto the coast, where a rich variety of wildlife were at risk in the maze of marshes that amounts to 40 percent of the US wetlands.
A worker from United States Environmental Services helps load oil booms onto a boat May 3, 2010 in Pass Christian, Mississippi.
A dead fish is seen on the beach May 5, 2010 in Pass Christian, Mississippi. The BP spill was the worst environmental disaster in U.S. history.
Environmental Protection Agency scientist Archie Lee collects a sample of sand as Peter Kalla also of the EPA watches May 3, 2010 on the beach in Biloxi, Mississippi.
Prisoners from the Elayn Hunt Correctional Center line up as they prepare to undertake a training exercise to learn how to cleanse oil from birds affected by the oil slick from the BP Deepwater Horizon platform disaster in New Orleans Louisiana, on May 3, 2010.
Workers put the finishing touches on the Pollution Control Dome at the Martin Terminal worksite in Port Fourchon, as BP rushed to cap the source of the oil slick from the BP Deepwater Horizon platform disaster in Louisiana, on May 4, 2010. The well wasn’t completely sealed until July.
In the slideshow above, you can see photos of the spill. And for a look at some of the lessons learned, read our earlier piece, The BP Blowout, 2 Years Later.
Barer speaks with a spokesman for the company behind the project, who tells him that “the waste will be encapsulated in reinforced concrete casks and buried in pits hundreds of feet deep in red bed clay, an almost impermeable material.” The company adds that “the entire storage area will be encased with a concrete-reinforced liner.”
But Barer also talks to an environmental group who has come to a very different conclusion:
Karen Hadden, executive director of the Sustainable Energy and Economic Development Coalition (SEED), an environmental group, believes the chance of a leak or contamination remains high.
She said that the six other low-level radioactive waste sites — including three active sites in Clive, Utah; Richland, Wash.; and Barnwell, S.C. — all have had leaks.
And now, two years later, what’s been the impact on the Texas?
“Well, I think the impact to the Texas coastline so far as I have read about it has been minimal. The oil went primarily the other way,” says Dr. Paul Bommer, a professor at the University of Texas. He was on a national panel of engineers that looked at the causes of the spill.
“It went to Louisiana,” he says. “Some went as far away as the Florida panhandle. But a lot of it appears to have been dispersed.” Continue Reading →
The proposed pipeline has become a political issue in both states and on national campaign stages, where it’s used to underscore energy policies of both President Barack Obama and his Republican challengers. The Keystone XL pipeline also highlights economic and environmental policy differences between Republicans and Democrats.
Texas politicians love giving lip service to the sanctity of private property. They also talk a lot about the benefits of the state’s robust oil and gas industry. But what happens when those two things come into conflict?
A new study is making headlines this week for linking increased earthquake activity to wells used to dispose of wastewater from the drilling practice known as “fracking.” Today seismologists William Ellsworth and Stephen Horton (who published the study) are doing a live chat with the journal Science. You can read along (and chime in with your own questions) below.
Texas has one of its hottest summers on record last year, exacerbating the drought. Ranch owner Myron Calley stands next a drying pond at his ranch near Snyder
The latest drought monitor is out today (which isn’t surprising, it comes out every Thursday) and again, the numbers show improvement. The great drought that began in the fall of 2010 shows continued signs of receding, with over 18 percent of the state now completely drought-free, and a little less than ten percent of the state in the worst stage of drought, ‘exceptional.’ (To put that in perspective, at the peak of the drought in the fall of 2011, 88 percent of Texas was in that worst stage.)
Julia Trigg Crawford has several hundred acres of land in northeast Texas. And the Keystone XL pipeline may have to go through it.
The Keystone XL pipeline will go through 17 counties in Texas, crossing the property of 850 landowners. And not all of them are happy about it.
High on that list is David Daniel, a carpenter in Winnsboro, north of Tyler. He bought twenty acres of land here about six years ago and moved out with his wife and daughter. Their land is lush with hundred-year-old hardwoods, and lots of fresh water that bubbles up in springs and seeps.
Watering in Dallas will now be limited to twice a week. Permanently.
If you live in Dallas, you may want to reconsider that thirsty St. Augustine grass on your lawn, because starting Monday, you’ll only be able to water your lawn twice a week. Permanently.
Today the Dallas City Council voted in permanent water restrictions for the city, in a move that Dallas Mayor Mike Rawlings (as well as the mayors of Fort Worth, Arlington and Irving) asked for recently. Any hose-end sprinklers or automatic systems can only be used twice a week, regardless of drought conditions. The city says you can still water at any time by hand or with a soaker hose to protect home foundations.
Lisa Jackson, the head of the EPA, says the new rules will "an important step toward tapping future energy supplies without exposing American families and children to dangerous health threats in the air they breathe.”
Well, the time has come for federal regulation of fracking, a drilling practice in widespread use across Texas. Up until now it’s been a practice regulated by states, but in new rules announced by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)Â today, the federal government will now have oversight over emissions from fracking.
The EPA says the standards are required by the Clean Air Act, and will “reduce 95 percent of the harmful emissions from these wells that contribute to smog and lead to health impacts.” It argues that the standards, which focus on preventing gas leaks from fracking wells that can cause health impacts and greenhouse gas emissions, “will also enable companies to collect additional natural gas that can be sold.”
The EPA says half of fracking wells are already capturing such leaks, and whatever costs are associated with complying with the new rules can be offset by selling the gas trapped. The agency calls the technology used for this “green completions.”
The rules will be phased in over the next few years. By 2015, all new wells must utilize the “green completion” technology. You can read more at the EPA’s website.
And we’ll have reaction from Texas as it comes in.
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