The EPA sets tougher national soot standards. These 10 Texas counties already exceed them.
Some environmental experts are skeptical that Texas can meet the new rules on particulate matter, which can cause serious respiratory problems. Full Story
/https://static.texastribune.org/media/files/dd574d9eb3e1171acbb14ea56257ff6e/Marathon%20Refinery%20Texas%20City%20REUTERS.JPG)
/https://static.texastribune.org/media/profiles/2022_Alejandra_Martinez_2x3.jpeg)
Alejandra Martinez is a Fort Worth-based environmental reporter. She’s covered the impacts of petrochemical facilities on Black and brown communities, including investigating a chemical fire at an industrial complex and how the state's air monitoring system has failed Latino communities. Her work on climate change includes exploring the health effects of extreme heat and how extended droughts affect water resources. Before joining the Tribune in 2022, Alejandra was an accountability reporter at KERA, where she began as a Report for America Corps Member and then covered Dallas City Hall. She also has worked as an associate producer at WLRN in South Florida. A Houston native, Alejandra studied journalism at the University of Texas at Austin and speaks fluent Spanish.
Latest Contributions
-
![Production units are seen in operation at Marathon Petroleum’s Galveston Bay Refinery in Texas City, Texas, U.S., May 15, 2023.]()
Credit: REUTERS/Erwin Seba -
How Texas is playing a major role in the race to develop clean energy technologies
The federal government is pouring billions of dollars into developing clean power sources. In this conversation hosted by The Texas Tribune in Houston, panelists discussed how Texas companies are playing a major role in emerging technologies like hydrogen and geothermal. Full Story
/https://static.texastribune.org/media/files/13fdeda599aa99740a605ed4dbd81027/03-28_TexasEnergy-Lead-Title-01-v1.png)
![Article thumbnail]()
-
In Dallas, EPA casts a net for answers on how pollution from concrete batch plants affects people’s health
EPA scientists went fishing to begin a study of how pollution from a group of concrete batch plants impacts human health. Full Story
/https://static.texastribune.org/media/files/ff668f556caacc3ee585bd79786c3e77/0130%20EPA%20Concrete%20Study%20DR%20TT%2010.JPG)
![DALLAS, TX - JANUARY 30, 2024: Jamie Morgan, 35, aquatic biologist at Jacobs Solutions, (left) sets up a gillnet with employees of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) at Fish Trap Lake Park in Dallas, Texas on Tuesday, Jan. 30, 2024. The city of Dallas and local community leaders partnered with the EPA on the Cumulative Impacts Assessment Pilots Project, which focuses on the cumulative impacts from concrete batch plants. CREDIT: Desiree Rios for The Texas Tribune]()
Credit: Desiree Rios for The Texas Tribune -
Texas companies reported releasing 1 million pounds of excess pollution during recent cold snap
Called “upset” events, companies are required to tell the state when they emit pollution above what their permits allow. Full Story
/https://static.texastribune.org/media/files/f3fdae92a7320d62e6beedae35e87207/Industrial%20Corpus%20MGO%20TT%2003.jpg)
![A house in the Hillcrest neighborhood in Corpus on Feb. 7, 2022. Houses in this neighborhood have co-existed with oil refineries like Flint Hills for decades.]()
Credit: Michael Gonzalez for The Texas Tribune -
“I don’t wish this on anyone”: Two families mourn their losses after a record year for Texas heat deaths
More than 300 Texans died from heat in 2023, the most since the state began tracking such deaths in 1989. Full Story
/https://static.texastribune.org/media/files/978e916bb325c8e3a621c2475a91a6be/1216%20Heat%20Deaths%20Freeport%20EG%20TT%2019.jpg)
![Donald Green's stepson Jerry Barker spreads Green's and Green's dog's ashes, at the backyard of Green's old home in Freeport during a celebration of life, on Dec. 16, 2023.]()
Credit: Eddie Gaspar/The Texas Tribune -
Last year was the hottest ever recorded in Texas
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration data shows that average temperatures in 2023 were 3.5 degrees above the 20th century average. Full Story
/https://static.texastribune.org/media/files/f73c47f1a2c12bf6fc2f4c5d867a2dd0/0710%20EMS%20Heat%20Ridealong%20JT%20TT%2006.jpg)
![Austin-Travis County EMS first responders cart Robert Shipp, 75, of Bastrop, to an ambulance during a 102 degree summer day outside Austin Wrench A Part in Del Valle on July 7, 2023. According to the EMS crew and Shipp, he was seen passing out while searching for car parts under the hot sun, and hadn’t eaten any food or drank any water all day.]()
Credit: Joe Timmerman/The Texas Tribune -
How Texas polluters classify big facilities as smaller ones to avoid stricter environmental rules and public input
Industrial developers describe large facilities as “minor” polluters to avoid federal permitting requirements, and environmental lawyers say the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality lets it happen. Full Story
/https://static.texastribune.org/media/files/6757caedc0859b997d2e541dea1d23a8/Major%20Minor%20DB%20TT%2006.jpg)
![The GAF roofing shingles factory in West Dallas on Dec. 13. The factory reclassified itself as minor and averted public participation requirements in 2022.]()
Credit: Shelby Tauber/Inside Climate News -
Worried about safety, a small West Texas town challenges planned cross-border pipeline
Critics are calling on federal regulators to increase their scrutiny and oversight of the proposed pipeline, which would send gas from Texas to the Mexican coast for export to other countries. Full Story
/https://static.texastribune.org/media/files/dece57c56510b938533a2f572cf4dfa0/1129%20Saguaro%20Pipeline%20MP%2009.jpg)
![The skyline of Van Horn, Texas, where residents are raising concerns about a proposed natural gas pipeline.]()
Credit: Martha Pskowski/Inside Climate News -
Bison return to Texas Indigenous lands, reconnecting tribes to their roots
Indigenous ranchers in Texas are receiving help from nonprofits to rebuild bison herds in the state. One family in Sulphur Springs that received five bison last month invited Texas tribal members to see the herd in person. Full Story
/https://static.texastribune.org/media/files/423782702dadd2c06c0cdfed21a25b08/1104%20Bison%20Return%20DR%20TT%2020.JPG)
![People, including tribe members, gather in a circle during a blessing ceremony for the three herds of bison gifted to Theda Pogue, affiliated with the Muscogee Creek Nation of Oklahoma, and her family on Saturday, November 4, 2023 at GP Ranch in Sulphur Springs, Texas.]()
Credit: Desiree Rios for The Texas Tribune -
Fear and worry shadow Texas oyster fishermen as another season begins with few reefs open
Despite fishermen’s wishes to delay the season in hopes that oyster reefs recover from years of environmental stress, the state pushed ahead with a Nov. 1 start. Full Story
/https://static.texastribune.org/media/files/a3db262c031828b281a31b4053b295f1/1101%20Oyster%20Season%20EG%20TT%2067.jpg)
![Manuel Perez watches as neighboring oyster boats maneuver around the harvesting zone in Galveston Bay, outside of Texas City, on the first day of the oyster harvesting season, on Nov. 1, 2023.]()
Credit: Eddie Gaspar/The Texas Tribune