Texas Department of Public Safety Sergeant Jason Reyes walks past the site of an apartment complex destroyed by the deadly fertilizer plant explosion in West.
Update: The State Fire Marshal’s Office says that there are now two investigations, one into the origin and cause of the fire, led by their office and the Federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms (ATF); and one into any potential criminal activity, spurred by the arrest of West paramedic Bryce Reed for possession of a “destructive device” earlier this morning, which state officials say is not related to the West fertilizer plant fire and explosion.
In a statement, the Fire Marshal’s office says the following:
“Due to an unrelated investigation and the recent arrest of Bryce Reed by ATF on a charge unrelated to the West Fertilizer Plant fire and explosion, the State Fire Marshal’s Office will be partnering with the McLennan County Sheriff’s Office, Department of Public Safety (DPS), and ATF to ensure that all potential facts and leads related to the incidents in West are investigated to the fullest extent.”
Original story: While an official investigation by state and federal agencies into the cause of the April 17 fire and explosion at the West fertilizer plant in Central Texas continues, a criminal investigation was announced today by the state Department of Public Safety (DPS). The West fertilizer plant explosion and its aftermath killed 15 and has destroyed nearly 150 homes in the small community north of Waco.
DPS Director Steven McCraw announced today that his agency is directing the Texas Rangers to work with the McLennan County Sheriff to conduct a criminal investigation into the explosion. Continue Reading →
The big questions about the future of pipelines in Texas this legislative session revolve around how companies should be able to use eminent domain to build them. Those questions remain unanswered.
But while Texas lawmakers have been unable to agree on reforms to pipeline companies common carrier status, they have voted some other bills out that overhaul the regulation of pipelines in Texas. As we reported earlier, a bill that would allow fracking wastewater to be transported by pipeline was recently voted out of the State Senate.
Another Bill, SB 901, is headed to Conference Committee. That bill would update “inconsistent and outdated” parts of the Texas Natural Resources Code having to do with pipeline safety that are out of whack with federal code. Read more here.
Some of the Texas panhandle drought conditions worsened in the past week, according to maps from the U.S. Drought Monitor.
More than two percent of Texas worsened to exceptional drought from last week. The U.S. Drought Monitor maps released today show more of the panhandle in the most serious drought category. Last week, just over 10 percent of the state was considered to be in exceptional drought- now it’s pushing 13 percent.
The second most severe level of drought also saw an increase in the percentage of Texas afflicted. This increase, too, was seen predominately in and around the panhandle.
And recent weather may have brought an uninvited guest: bees.
The State Legislature will hear six bills today that would effect several of the state's water issues.
Update: As of Thursday morning none of the bills mentioned in this article had been brought to the floor with the exception of HB2133 and HB1509.
Wednesday, the legislative calendar is inundated with bills that would effect how the state handles its water issues.
In total, six water bills are up for a second reading in the house, three of them authored by State Rep. Lyle Larson, R-San Antonio.
HB 2133, would allow the state to use alternative techniques in water treatment, namely desalination. The bill also promotes water reuse.
Another of Larson’s bills promotes underground storage facilities as an alternative to drawing water from lakes, where more water is lost to evaporation. HB 3013, the aquifer storage and recovery (ASR) bill, also changes the role of the groundwater conservation districts for the future of the state’s water.
The blind salamander is one of Texas' endangered species. A new bill passing through the House could move Texas' endangered species monitoring duties from the Comptroller to the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department.
Earlier: The Texas House could vote today on a bill that would strip the Texas Comptroller’s office of its endangered species monitoring duties and send the job over to the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department.
Advocates of the legislation, like Bill Stevens, a government affairs consultant for the Texas Alliance of Energy Producers who lobbied for the bill, say the switch could help keep potential species off the endangered species list. The listing of species can invite federal intrusion and hinder business.
“We need a more transparent and broader state-government involvement,” Stevens told StateImpact.
Searchers in protective suits walk through the blast zone of the fertilizer plant that exploded.
Update:House Bill 1714 failed to come up for a vote in the Texas House by the end of the day Thursday, the deadline for bills to pass out of the House. This is first time the bill has not been approved by the house since 2003, when  Rep. Wayne Smith first filed it. Previously the bill has always died in the State Senate, according to testimony Rep. Smith gave at an April 9th committee hearing.Â
Investigators continue to sift through the rubble in West, Texas to learn how a fertilizer plant there exploded, taking 15 lives and destroying nearly two hundred homes. Â Many state officials deny that environmental regulations, or their absence, Â had anything to do with the disaster.
But that hasn’t stopped the tragedy from changing the way people talk about environmental regulation this session.
The bill would end a program that grades businesses on environmental compliance and makes those grades public. The bill’s author, state Rep. Wayne Smith, R-Baytown, says the program at the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ) burdens businesses and regulators alike.
Groundwater levels in Texas’ major aquifers dropped considerably between 2010 and 2011, as the state’s drought intensified, according to a report published recently by the Texas Water Development Board.
The report showed significant declines in the Ogallala Aquifer, which underlies much of the Panhandle. The water board monitors 26 wells in the Ogallala, and water levels dropped in all but one during the 2010-11 period. The average drop was 3.5 feet, with a median decline of 1.8 feet.
“This year of a drought — it has affected even the groundwater levels to a greater extent than I’ve ever seen,” said Janie Hopkins, who manages the water board’s groundwater division.
The figures for 2011-12, which will probably be ready for publication around August, are also expected to be gloomy. There will probably be a “continuing downward [trend] in the majority of these wells, but just at a less rapid rate,” Hopkins said. Continue Reading →
Tanker trucks arrive at the disposal well that was site of a 2012 explosion. It's approved to inject 30,000 barrels of wastewater a day.
Some people who live in Pearsall, the South Texas town where country star George Strait grew up, said they learned they had a disposal well nearby when they heard a big boom.
“Then I saw the billows of smoke coming out,” said Henry Martinez, Pearsall’s police chief.
He’s talking about the afternoon in January 2012 when investigators say a welder’s spark ignited oil vapors at a disposal site on the edge of town.Three workers were hurt and OSHA later cited the operator for alleged violations and proposed a $46,200 penalty.
As the legislature enters its final weeks, what are the big energy issues still facing lawmakers? Sunday on KXAN StateImpact Texas’ Mose Buchele joined a panel to discuss how water, drilling and fracking are forcing legislators to make some tough decisions as things get down to the wire. You can watch their discussion in the video above.
Fire boat response crews battle the blazing remnants of the offshore oil rig Deepwater Horizon in the Gulf of Mexico on April 21, 2010 near New Orleans, Louisiana.
Texas has announced five projects it hopes to fund with money from a settlement from the BP Deepwater Horizon oil spill in 2010. Three of them would aid in building artificial reefs along the Texas Gulf Coast — something that could prove a boon to the fishing industry and tourism.
While Texas was not hit as hard by the oil spill as neighboring Louisiana, its commercial fisheries have suffered in recent years. The spill impacted fishing and tourism in the Gulf. Then in 2011, the state delayed opening its oyster fisheries because of red tide associated with that year’s massive drought. Increased rainfall later put oysters back on the menu, but the precarious future of Texas oysters prompted Parks and Wildlife to boost construction of artificial reefs that can encourage oyster growth.
The three reef projects announced this week include:
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