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Energy and Environment Reporting for Texas

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Tracking the players in the ever-growing energy and environmental world.

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April 18, 2013

Iowa Community Knows Risks of Fertilizer But Welcomes Plant Expansion

Sioux City, Iowa now has a tragic link to West, Texas. Both communities have had fertilizer plants that have exploded, killing and injuring people. “We feel for that community right now,” said David Tripp, one of the five supervisors for Woodbury County where Sioux City is located. In Iowa, they too know the dangers of […]

Texas Investigated West Fertilizer Plant in 2006

The Texas Commission on Environmental Quality has released the records history of the West Fertilizer Co.The plant was built in 1962, before the federal government required such facilities to have federal air permit authorizations for certain chemicals. The plant did not receive the authorization until 2004. In 2006, a citizen filed an official complaint with the TCEQ. The complaint said that the “ammonia smell [was] very bad last night […]

April 15, 2013

Report Shows Texas Counties Where Fracking and Water Needs Collide

The Texas legislature is currently considering plans to fund water projects for the state. Meanwhile, the oil and gas industry is using billions of gallons of freshwater for fracking, which is getting the attention of lawmakers. Virginia Palacios, a research associate at the Environmental Defense Fund, has a new analysis showing that many of the Texas counties […]

April 11, 2013

Shale for Sale: Looking Beyond the Buzz in the Cline

Right now, there’s a lot excitement over different shale formations across Texas and across the country. But along with excitement, there sometimes comes hype. First there was the Barnett near Fort Worth and Pennsylvania’s Marcellus. In South Texas you’ve got the Eagle Ford. North Dakota taps the Bakken. It seems like everywhere you look, drillers […]

April 2, 2013

Mapped: Disposal Wells in Texas

Map by Ryan Murphy, Texas Tribune As the drilling process known as hydraulic fracturing, or “fracking,” has rapidly spread across Texas, so has the demand for disposal wells, where wastewater from oil and gas drilling is sent deep underground. In this new interactive map from Ryan Murphy of the Texas Tribune, you can see where […]

March 29, 2013

Fracking Disposal Wells Pose Challenges In Texas

This article is part of an occasional series on water and hydraulic fracturing by StateImpact Texas and the Texas Tribune. GONZALES, Tex. — In a dusty lot off the main highway in this South Texas town, Vern Sartin pointed to a collection of hose hookups and large storage tanks used for collecting wastewater from hydraulic fracturing jobs. […]

March 28, 2013
March 27, 2013

The Shale Boom: Small Texas Towns, Big Paychecks

Students from small towns in Texas are filling up community college classes that have titles like “Drilling” and “Well Completions.” At Coastal Bend College in Beeville in the heart of the Eagle Ford Shale, just 46 students enrolled for petroleum training courses in 2008. Last year, there were 1,086. Many of the students are lured […]

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