Dustin Brumagin

Environmental Injustice

Environmental Sociology

September 8, 2017

Texas is growing in population with good reason, because of how many jobs are available. There are many jobs available in the gas industry in Texas. Texas has environmental issues associated with the large gas industry it has. Texas has hazards such as air that isn’t clean, and a potential lack of water. There are many environmental associations unsatisfied with environmental quality control of the Texas Commission. They are not satisfied with the actions they are taking to protect the environment.

Texas has led the nation in producing chemical for many years. There is high amount of money involved in the chemical industry. There is over one-hundred billion dollars taken into the Texas economy from it. Well over fifty-thousand employees are employed in the industry. This is a major part of how Texas brings in high population, because of Texas having an abundance of jobs available. With the industry being such a big financial part in the state there has been complications. Many believe that because of the involvement the industry has in the state it is shortening the regulations put in place for environmental protection.

In a reading they make the following information available to us, and it states “We think either there isn’t enough cement in this location or more likely there are cracks or imperfections in that cement. That’s what allowed the strong gas to move up through the well and then out into peoples drinking water,” says Robert Jackson, a professor of environmental sciences at Stanford, who co-authored of the study. “One of the most interesting things was that we saw two houses go from clean to contaminated over the study period,” says Jackson. “One home, in particular, the methane in their water jumped tenfold from one sampling time to the next. So we caught contamination in the act (Buchele, 2014)”. This brings about some of the serious safety issues that are alarming many in Texas.

In a different reading, they bring about the point that dirty air is lowering grades overall in schools. Studies were done and showed that children in El Paso had lower grades due to the dirty air. “Effects appear to be insidious, since they are mild, unlikely to be perceived, and, hence, unlikely to be addressed in any way … seemingly trivial effects on children’s development may translate into substantial impacts throughout the life course in terms of physical and mental health and personal success,” the authors wrote (Bienkowski, 2015). Children’s health is a major concern to parents., and they are worried about the impact their children face. How children are able to learn because of their health is often an important factor. Texas must have a direct care about children’s health if they want to have healthy growing children.

Toxins are known to cause harm to many, but there has been lack of concern in El Paso shown. “Previous studies have shown that El Paso’s minorities are disproportionately impacted by toxics, Grineski said. The city of 675,000 is one of the worst when it comes to particulate matter—a mix of substances emitted by combustion sources, including cars, trucks, industrial plants and wood burning—especially coarse particulates, PM10, those between 2.5 and 10 micrometers (from about 25 to 100 times thinner than a human hair, according to the EPA) (Bienkowski, 2015)”. This is a huge concern to anyone in the area that there is that high amount of toxins in the air. El Paso is not in the best economic condition, and as stated ‘the city is poorer and more poverty stricken than the rest of Texas: El Paso’s median household income is 22 percent lower than the rest of the state, and has a 23 percent poverty rate compared to Texas’ 17 percent, according to the U.S. Census 2014 estimates (Bienkowski, 2015)”. This is a sign that in Texas that there is environmental racism happening in the state (Bell, 2016). There aren’t many signs of environmental justice seeming to occur.

The issues that have been brought about have raised concern in Texas over Environmental injustice. Areas of concern involving dirty, air, children’s health, and water pollution are all associated. Texas may be guilty of environmental injustice shown in different studies. Texas needs to make sure that the environment is properly protected, and that there are no cases of environmental racism occurring. Texas is not showing they have improper environmental justice occurring.

References

Bell, M. M. (2016). An Invitation to Environmental Sociology. Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE. (Bell, 2016)

https://stateimpact.npr.org/texas/2014/09/15/research-links-drilling-activities-to-water-contamination-in-north-texas/. (Buchele, 2014)

http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/dirty-air-correlates-with-lower-grades-in-texas-schoolchildren/. (Bienkowski, 2015)

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