Author: _admin9_

I recently report with my Inside Climate News colleague Jenaye Johnson on the federal program to help families pay for utility bills. “In San Elizario, Texas, tucked between cotton fields and the U.S.-Mexico border fence, nearly 30 percent of the population lives below the poverty line. When the summer heat hits here, electric bills skyrocket—and paying them is a struggle. Olivia Figueroa, executive director of the local organization AYUDA Inc., has lost track of how many people have sought help. ‘Let’s say that if we…Continue Reading “Funds to Help Low-Income Families With Summer Electric Bills Are Stretched Thin” →

By Martha Pskowski, Dylan Baddour April 28, 2024 Inside Climate News These days the Pecos River barely fills its dry, sandy bed where it crosses West Texas, but the river could be poised to flow again — with treated oilfield wastewater. Companies are racing to figure out what to do with the tremendous volume of noxious water that comes up from underground during oil and gas drilling in the Permian Basin, but a growing cohort of companies say they’ve developed a means to purify that…Continue Reading “Texas Companies Eye Pecos River Watershed for Oilfield Wastewater” →

Texas regulators recently authorized a company to operate ponds to store and recycle millions of gallons of oilfield wastewater laced with toxic chemicals next to a Baptist summer camp in the Permian Basin. The Richards Recycling Facility will store, treat and recycle produced water, a byproduct of oil and gas drilling, after obtaining a state permit on Jan. 30. Staff and board members at the Circle 6 Baptist Camp worry the facility will jeopardize their well water and expose campers to hazardous air pollution. “I…Continue Reading “Railroad Commission Approves Toxic Waste Ponds Next to Baptist Camp” →

Since January, I’ve been working at Inside Climate News as their Texas reporter. Today we co-published an investigation with the Texas Tribune on the scale of produced water spills in Texas. I teamed up with data reporter Peter Aldhous to analyze produced water spills data, provided in response to open records requests to the Railroad Commission.  The prolific oil and gas wells of Texas also generate billions of gallons of salty liquid known as produced water. A lot of this toxic water, just like crude…Continue Reading “Oil and Gas Companies Spill Millions of Gallons of Wastewater in Texas” →

Colonias like Cochran formed in U.S.-Mexico border counties such as El Paso during the 1970s and 1980s when developers sold land far-removed from water and sewer services. Texas adopted legislation in 1989 to prohibit these developments, but righting the wrongs of the past is still a work in progress. Even after decades of work to connect colonia residents to services, an estimated 1,400 El Paso County residents still don’t have running water at home. A patchwork of public and non-profit funds is helping close the…Continue Reading “‘Once in a lifetime’: funding helps El Paso close the water gap in colonias” →

UVALDE — Students across the United States walked out of classes Thursday to protest gun violence and show support for the students and teachers killed in Uvalde – schools that have a little-known history of activism and walkouts. Robb Elementary School is now the site of the second most-deadly school shooting in U.S. history. Five decades earlier, Uvalde schools were the site of one of the longest school walkouts in Texas history, prompted by discrimination against Mexican-American students. As parents press law enforcement agencies for…Continue Reading “Before Uvalde school shooting, Mexican-Americans fought for decades to improve school system” →

Every morning, cars and trucks line up at the Bridge of Americas Port of Entry, awaiting entry to El Paso from Juárez, engines idling, and exhaust filling the air during this rush hour ritual in the borderland. Zavala Elementary School, built in 1925, is just feet from the highway leading to the border crossing. The Bridge of the Americas was originally constructed in 1967, and as international trade through El Paso grew, I-10, Route 54 and the I-10 connector gradually encroached on the school. “Our neighborhood is…Continue Reading “‘Neighborhood is treated like a dumping ground’: Activists say Texas should own up to air pollution” →

I wrote for Outside about Daniel Pérez and the Sanba Cycling Team. “On a July morning, the cyclists start arriving at Brooklyn’s Prospect Park before dawn, the pavement still wet from an overnight downpour. More than 300 people are registered for the second race in this year’s Lucarelli and Castaldi Cup, a fixture in New York City’s cycling circuit. Competitive cyclists in the city are finally releasing the pent-up energy of a year without bike racing, waiting out the pandemic. Daniel Pérez, founder of the…Continue Reading “Outside: The Latin American Immigrants Shaking Up New York City’s Bike Races” →

“Mike Greco was worried. In early March 2020, New York City had confirmed its first case of Covid-19, and the vice president of Local 2507, the union representing employees of the city’s emergency medical services (EMS), knew how overworked and exhausted EMS workers already were. At a special City Council hearing on March 5, he testified that EMS was already handling 1.5 million calls a year. “If you were to have another half million calls in a pandemic, you would overwhelm the system,” he said….Continue Reading “The Nation: Saving Lives and Going Hungry: NYC Ambulance Workers Demand Higher Pay” →

I wrote for the Lost on the Frontline series of The Guardian about the sacrifices New York City’s EMTs and paramedics have made over the past year, and their demands for fair compensation. — In his 17 years as an emergency medical provider, Anthony Almojera thought he had seen it all. “Shootings, stabbings, people on fire, you name it,” he said. Then came Covid-19. Before the pandemic, Almojera said it was normal to respond to one or two cardiac arrest calls a week; now he’s…Continue Reading “The Guardian: ‘It doesn’t feel worth it’: Covid-19 is pushing New York’s EMTs to the brink” →