High Levels of Pollution in Texas

Despite efforts of the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality to protect the environment for Texas residents, the state is often seen on lists of the worst polluters in the United States. According to Texas State Senator Eliot Shapleigh, Texans now live with the highest levels of pollution in their water, air and soil. Houston and Dallas are the worst offenders.

Animal Waste Pollution

• Confined animal feeding operations (CAFO) produce huge amounts of waste that pollute the land and water in Texas. Dairy operations in Erath County and Central Texas are known polluters, as are chicken farms in Titus and Camp Counties in east Texas where Texas' only natural lake suffers from ongoing contamination. Chicken farms in these counties produce in excess of 31 billion pounds of waste.

Mercury Pollution

• Texas was ranked the worst in the nation for mercury pollution in a report by Environment Texas. One coal-fired plant in Northeast Texas was singled out as emitting more mercury annually (2,600 pounds) than any other polluter in the world. Another company near Mount Pleasant ranked fifth worst, emitting 1,828 pounds per year.

Carbon Dioxide

• Texas power plants produced almost 257 million tons of CO2 emissions in 2010, which is 5.56 percent more than in 2009. It was the worst CO2 polluter in the nation. The next worst CO2 polluters were Florida and Ohio, but their CO2 pollution combined did not reach the level of Texas. Electric generators, according to the EPA, produced 2.4 billion tons of CO2 in 2010. Coal-fired boilers that emit CO2 provided half the energy in 2010 at a cost of 81 percent of total CO2 emissions from electricity generation.

Oil Pollution

• Oil pollution in Texas waterways is a threat. In January 2010 an oil spill closed the Sabine-Neches Waterway in Port Arthur when a tanker collided with a barge and spilled 11,000 barrels of oil. While spills are isolated incidents of pollution, the threat remains serious because of Texas' involvement in the oil industry. The oil slick covered 9 miles of shoreline. The last time there was a spill of such magnitude in Texas was in 1994.

Methane Contamination

• Gas drilling companies in Texas are potential threats to water supplies when their operations include hydraulic fracturing. The Environmental Protection Agency ordered one Texas gas company to provide water to residents whose water the agency said the company polluted with methane. This explosive gas can seep into aquifers, as it did in this instance, and contaminate large stores of public waters and private wells. Methane endangers human health.