{"id":2366,"date":"2011-11-25T11:19:12","date_gmt":"2011-11-25T17:19:12","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/?p=2366"},"modified":"2011-11-25T11:19:12","modified_gmt":"2011-11-25T17:19:12","slug":"epas-watch-list-by-the-numbers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/2011\/11\/25\/epas-watch-list-by-the-numbers\/","title":{"rendered":"EPA’s ‘Watch List,’ By the Numbers"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Teresa Vieira\/KUT News<\/p>

Several pipelines run underneath the Dona Park neighborhood in Corpus Christi<\/p><\/div>\n

The Center for Public Integrity’s iwatch News<\/a><\/em> has put together a “by the numbers” look at toxic air emissions. The data comes from\u00a0a once-secret EPA \u2018watch list\u2019<\/a>\u00a0that shows repeated violators of environmental laws in the country, with many of them in Texas<\/a>. StateImpact Texas, NPR and the Center for Public Integrity\u00a0reported on the list<\/a>\u00a0and people affected by pollution earlier this month.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

The list showed that even though many facilities were violating the law, the EPA and state agencies aren’t\u00a0enforcing those laws in a timely manner. Only twenty percent of air pollution leaks are actually investigated by the EPA, and around one-third of those end up being prosecuted.\u00a0The EPA publicly\u00a0released the list\u00a0on its website<\/a>\u00a0earlier this week.<\/div>\n
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Here’s a “by the numbers<\/a>” look at some of the data from the list by the Center for Public Integrity:\u00a0<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
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726\u00a0complaints<\/h2>\n<\/td>\n

Regarding \u2018carbon black,\u2019 a fine, carbon-based dust and possible carcinogen, from the residents of Ponca City, Oklahoma, over an eighteen-year period. Most complaints were closed after inspectors\u00a0couldn\u2019t physically see<\/a>\u00a0carbon black coming out of a plant.<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
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2,000\u00a0acres<\/h2>\n<\/td>\n

Size of the tailings, or mining waste, pile from a\u00a0copper smelter<\/a>\u00a0in Hayden, Arizona. Huge dust clouds from the ore pile, which spans more than 3 sq. miles, have at times obscured visibility for the town\u2019s residents.<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
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464\u00a0facilities<\/h2>\n<\/td>\n

High-pollution plants the EPA placed on their internal \u2018watch list,\u2019 which includes serious or chronic violators<\/a>\u00a0of the Clean Air Act.<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
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3,000\u00a0\u02daF<\/h2>\n<\/td>\n

Heat necessary to incinerate the hazardous waste of the Ash Grove Cement Company, a plant in Chanute, Kansas, whose cement kiln\u00a0falls into a loophole<\/a>\u00a0of EPA\u2019s air pollution standards, and emits hundreds of pounds of mercury into the air.<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
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270\u00a0days<\/h2>\n<\/td>\n

The minimum delay between the discovery of a Clean Air Act violation, and\u00a0inclusion on EPA\u2019s \u2018watch list.\u2019<\/a><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
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74 %<\/h2>\n<\/td>\n

Percentage of\u00a0increased birth defects<\/a>\u00a0in the three counties surrounding \u2018Refinery Row,\u2019 in Corpus Christi, Texas, as compared to the rest of the state.<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

Here’s a map of violators<\/a> flagged by the EPA in Texas.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Center for Public Integrity’s iwatch News has put together a “by the numbers” look at toxic air emissions. The data comes from\u00a0a once-secret EPA \u2018watch list\u2019\u00a0that shows repeated violators of environmental laws in the country, with many of them in Texas. StateImpact Texas, NPR and the Center for Public Integrity\u00a0reported on the list\u00a0and people […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":50,"featured_media":1543,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[59],"tags":[21,83,39],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2366"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/50"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2366"}],"version-history":[{"count":27,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2366\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2397,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2366\/revisions\/2397"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1543"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2366"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2366"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2366"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}