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Out of the Lead but Into the Fire: Bruce Elementary School Burns
The old Bruce Elementary School on Bringhurst St. in the Fifth Ward — featured on Swamplot just last week and apparently just about ready to go up for sale — went up in flames last Friday night,...
View ArticleComment of the Day: Not Much Happening South of Clear Brook Landing
“. . . Beamer Road is a special case because of the Brio Superfund Site. There was a waste processing plant that had disposed of a great deal of material from various refineries by dumping it into...
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My Toxic Houston Childhood
Blogger Maritza Valle grew up in Southbend, next to the Brio Superfund site, just west of San Jacinto College’s South Campus: I lived in a toxic waste dump when I was young. Yes, let it sink in like...
View ArticleComment of the Day: The Uncharted Inner Loop
“. . . you really haven’t got a clue if you think that suburban soil toxicity is a good reason to live inside the loop. The oldest parts of the city experienced the longest duration of industrial...
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Seabrook Is Booming!
Here’s a view from a Seabrook resident’s home this morning, looking across the way to the American Acryl acrylic-acid plant at 11600 Port Rd. off Old Texas 146, less than a mile east of the newer Hwy....
View ArticleHow To Prepare San Jac River Stew
What’s the local recipe for that San Jacinto River fishin’ favorite, toxic redfish? “The dioxins come from submerged waste pits north of the Interstate 10 bridge. McGinnes Industrial Maintenance Corp.,...
View ArticleHouse Shopping in the Chemical Discount Zones: Finding Houston’s Less-Toxic...
“A commenter on your blog who says he works at a chemical plant recently wrote that a neighborhood 1 mile from a chemical plant ‘is never going to be an “OK” neighborhood.’ Is there a single citywide...
View ArticleComment of the Day: Clear Lake City Cleans Up Nicely
“Is there a discount [for homes near chemical plants]? Hell yes! And it’s for lots of reasons: 1) real or perceived pollution, 2) real or perceived high crime, 3) low elevations, 4) higher property...
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Gulf Slick Would Cover Houston’s Oily Parts Quite Nicely, Thank You
Playing around with a super-fun online tool that lets you superimpose the blobbish outline of the 2500-sq.-mile (and growing!) Gulf of Mexico oil slick from the Deepwater Horizon offshore-rig disaster...
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On Top of Old 1,1-Dichloroethene: The New Silber Rd. Walmart
A little more detail on that other Walmart headed for I-10, from Memorial Examiner reporter Rusty Graham: Construction will begin within a couple of months on the 185,000 sq. ft. Supercenter just...
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Galveston’s Abandoned Falstaff Brewery Starring in Its Own Horror Flick
Start with a few architecture students on some kind of field trip with their professor. Throw in a “freak storm.” Then trap everyone — along with a “chaperone” — inside a massive and spooky abandoned...
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Smelt on the Banks of the Houston Ship Channel
Included in USA Today‘s national list of “ghost factories” — forgotten lead smelting sites that have left behind toxic particles in the nearby soil — is the Lead Products Co. site at 709 N. Velasco...
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Some Real-Life Occupants for Galveston’s Long-Abandoned Brewery?
The endangered historic Falstaff Brewery that once harbored a bunch of scared architecture students in a horror flick might become a real refuge for Galvestonians looking for cheap housing — or so...
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