Federal prosecutions of area polluters drop

[Judi Lynn]

Oct. 21, 2006, 9:43PM
Federal prosecutions of area polluters drop
Critics say U.S. Attorney's Office isn't doing enough to pick up where state has failed


By HARVEY RICE
Copyright 2006 Houston Chronicle

After illegally using a pesticide to kill feral hogs — and in the process killing raccoons, mourning doves and crows — two Fayette County farmers were fined $500 in 2004.

That was the most recent conviction Houston's federal prosecutors have obtained on their own for an environmental crime. The lack of new environmental prosecutions by the U.S. Attorney's Office is remarkable for a city that has vied with Los Angeles for the title of the nation's smog capital, say environmentalists and some current and former officials.

"We've got more (pollution) than anyone else in the country and, therefore, we should have a lot of prosecutions," said Neil Carman, clean-air program director for the Sierra Club.

Carman, who worked for 12 years for the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality, noted that the Houston Ship Channel has the largest concentration of petrochemical plants in the nation and that Harris and Brazoria counties rank among the nation's most polluted.
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http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/metropolitan/4278229.html



Air pollution in Houston, Texas, 2000. (Photo courtesy UT)