News and analysis for San Antonio and the South Texas bioregion.
After wresting a semblance of its formerly wild self from the shop-lined canals and flood-control channels of the Alamo City, the San Antonio River winds its way through 60 miles of gently rolling brush country before reaching a “spot of entrancing beauty.” In the center of Karnes County—known best for its […]
Hector Zertuche’s first environmental crime occurred around 2009 when he discovered a truckload of oilfield drilling muds dumped on the banks of the Nueces River outside Sandia. “We matched the tracks to a nearby resident,” the Jim Wells County Sheriff’s Deputy told me recently. “But we messed up. We cited […]
Frio County, Texas, Struggles with Fracking’s Leftovers (First published at the Texas Observer.) On a gravel road in rural Frio County, sheriff’s deputies are doing something they never thought they would—enforcing state environmental laws in the oilpatch. The truck drivers they were ticketing were certainly surprised. “No, I don’t understand,” a […]
Billions of gallons of water are wasted each year to fracture shale formations around the country and free trapped oil and gas. After the water is shot down a well, it returns to the surface heavily contaminated with hydrocarbons, fracking chemicals, heavy metals, and radioactivity. After the oil and gas […]
Greg Harman I’ve been known to tap out some disgusted words about major SA employer, Valero Energy. There was a time the petrochemical company was buying (and begging) its way into the biodiesel universe and unwary and optimistic enviros may have thought the nation’s largest refiner could be planning to transform itself […]