Environment

After recommending Wednesday night that residents leave the area, Jefferson County officials have told residents it's safe to return home.

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An analysis by the Washington, D.C.-based Environmental Integrity Project found that 30 states have cut funding to environmental agencies over the past decade. In Texas, lawmakers slashed spending by more than a third between 2008 and 2018.

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U.S. District Judge Kenneth M. Hoyt approved the settlement agreement between a scrappy environmental coalition and plastics giant Formosa. The settlement is the largest in U.S. history resulting from a citizen environmental suit.

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A subsidiary of Tulsa-based Williams Cos. is suing Texas' oil and gas regulatory agency after it approved a request from Dallas-based Exco Operating Co. to burn off natural gas from wells in South Texas while they were hooked up to Williams' pipeline system.

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The Southeast Texas chemical manufacturing plant, owned by Houston-based Texas Petroleum Chemical Group, has a long history of environmental violations and been out of compliance with federal clean air laws for years.

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Attorney General Ken Paxton applauded the new rules, saying they would make Texans safer. The Obama-era regulation was meant to improve chemical safety practices and prevent tragedies like the deadly 2013 fertilizer plant explosion in the tiny Central Texas town of West.

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A coalition of residents and indigenous and environmental groups has rallied against a trio of proposed terminals to export liquefied natural gas from the Port of Brownsville. Thursday's vote puts the terminals closer to final approval.

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Most Texas voters say climate change is happening, but there are significant partisan differences, according to the latest University of Texas/Texas Tribune Poll.

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Every year West Texas experiences more and more small earthquakes. The study by the University of Texas at Austin documented more than 7,000 starting in 2009.

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On this week’s TribCast, Emily talks to Kiah, Edgar, Emma and Cassi about a major Tribune investigation into coal clean-ups in Texas, state leaders’ role in a North Texas child custody case, a mass exodus from the Legislative Budget Board and the latest on the House speaker.

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An investigation by The Texas Tribune and Grist shows that regulators in the Lone Star State have given a hand up to struggling coal companies as they face millions of dollars in mandated land restoration costs.

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Alcoa has put its shuttered Sandow Mine site on the market for $250 million, advertising it as a country paradise. Testing has found that groundwater under a landfill in the middle of the property is contaminated with toxic heavy metals.

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Sulphur Springs leaders say they want Luminant — Texas’ largest electricity generator — to leave in place a 120-foot-tall mound of excavated dirt at the site of a shuttered coal mine so they can build an amphitheater. But the soil contains potentially dangerous materials, according to state regulators.

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The Sierra Blanca facility, which houses ICE detainees, shuts down its water supply at 11 p.m. daily to allow its on-site water tanks to replenish overnight.

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Decades ago, lawmakers passed a law that was meant to fully fund Texas Parks and Wildlife, but the money never seemed to make it to the parks. Now they're asking voters to create a constitutional mandate that parks get more money.

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A judge had ruled that the company illegally dumped billions of plastic pellets and other pollutants into Lavaca Bay and other waterways.

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Nearly 900 homes sustained major damage or were destroyed and uninsured in six affected counties, according to a preliminary assessment.

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For people affected by Imelda to get FEMA aid, there have to be at least 800 flooded homes that weren't insured — and it could be weeks before Texans know if that threshold is met.

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While Gov. Greg Abbott declared a state of emergency for Tropical Storm Imelda, it does not qualify individuals for financial assistance. That will have to come from FEMA.

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Both deaths were related to flooding from the storm. More than a thousand others needed to be rescued and evacuated.

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