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Texas Commission on Environmental Quality

An Old Well Gushed Waste, Not Oil, in a Small West Texas Town

The Railroad Commission of Texas shut down injection wells to control a leak in a church parking lot. But 1.5 million gallons of toxic wastewater still spilled to the surface.

By Martha Pskowski

 A pit in the parking lot of the First Baptist Church in Grandfalls, Texas, where the Railroad Commission plugged a wellbore that was previously gushing thousands of gallons of wastewater a minute. Credit: Martha Pskowski/Inside Climate News
A Texas Commission on Environmental Quality investigator tested wastewater from Tesla’s Robstown lithium refinery on Feb. 12. Credit: Travis Prater/Texas Commission on Environmental Quality

Independent Testing Where Tesla’s Lithium Refinery Discharges Wastewater Found Toxic Metals

By Arcelia Martin
A pipe discharges liquid waste from Tesla’s lithium refinery plant into a ditch on Feb. 13 in Robstown, Texas. Credit: Steve Ray/Nueces County Drainage District No. 2

South Texas Officials Didn’t Know Tesla Was Discharging Lithium Refinery Wastewater Into Local Ditch

By Arcelia Martin
The 4,700-acre Seadrift Operations complex produces various plastics as well as chemicals for antifreeze, paints, detergents, shampoo and other beauty products on the Gulf Coast in Calhoun County, Texas. Credit: Dylan Baddour/Inside Climate News

Dow Asks Texas to Legalize Plastic Pollution From Its Seadrift Complex

By Dylan Baddour
In Deer Park, Texas, flaring at plants near the Houston Ship Channel in below freezing temperatures on Monday, Jan. 26. Credit: Brett Coomer/Houston Chronicle via Getty Images

Oil, Gas and Petrochemical Facilities in Texas Emitted 1.6 Million Pounds of Regulated Pollutants During Last Week’s Icy Weather

By Dylan Baddour, Peter Aldhous
An aerial view shows multiple barges on the water.

The Loosely Regulated Petrochemical Barge Industry Is Commandeering a Texas River

By Salina Arredondo, Public Health Watch
A view of the Valero Houston Refinery in Houston on Aug. 29. Credit: Ronaldo Schemidt/AFP via Getty Images

A New Report Describes Deep Environmental Cuts, State by State

By Lisa Sorg
Diesel-fueled generators sit between buildings at the Equinix Data Center in Ashburn, Va. Credit: Amanda Andrade-Rhoades/The Washington Post via Getty Images

Data Centers’ Use of Diesel Generators for Backup Power Is Commonplace—and Problematic

By Arcelia Martin
A blackened pipe with a large gout of flame swirling out of the top.

Trump Says America’s Oil Industry Is Cleaner Than Other Countries’. New Data Shows Massive Emissions From Texas Wells

By Martha Pskowski, Inside Climate News, and Mark Olalde, ProPublica
The Hays Energy Project, a 990 MW gas-fired power plant near San Marcos, is seen on May 27. Credit: Dylan Baddour/Inside Climate News

Developers Propose More Than 100 New Gas Power Plants in Texas

By Dylan Baddour
An oil drilling operation on the banks of the Red Bluff Reservoir in Reeves County, Texas is seen on May 27, 2020. Credit: Justin Hamel

Texas Oil and Gas Companies Drill With River Water During Extreme Drought

By Martha Pskowski
A rendering of the Pure Water Center, which broke ground on Feb. 27 and is expected to be operational by 2028. Credit: Courtesy of El Paso Water

El Paso Is Going to Turn Wastewater Into Drinking Water. Other Cities Will Soon Follow

By Martha Pskowski
The Texas Commission on Environmental Quality has recorded high benzene emissions for nearly 20 years outside K-Solv, a barge-cleaning and chemical distribution facility in the southeastern corner of Channelview, Texas. Credit: Jeffersonn Castellanos/Univision45

Levels of Cancer-Causing Benzene Reached New Heights in Beleaguered Channelview. Regulators Never Told Residents

By Savanna Strott, Public Health Watch
A Blanco resident pulls a water sample from their contaminated well, to compare it to bottled water in 2020 near Austin. Credit: Brett Coomer/Houston Chronicle via Getty Images

Texas Regulators Report More Than 250 New Cases of Groundwater Contamination

By Martha Pskowski
A view of the ExxonMobil Baytown refinery in Baytown, Texas. Credit: Mark Felix for The Washington Post via Getty Images

Federal Appeals Court Upholds $14.25 Million Fine Against Exxon for Pollution in Texas

By Kayla Guo, The Texas Tribune
The Rio Grande winds through the Chihuahuan Desert in far west Texas. Diversions for agriculture and cities have reduced the flow by at least 70 percent compared to historical flow levels. Credit: Omar Ornelas

Holding Out Hope On the Drying Rio Grande

By Martha Pskowski
A view of Deer Park Stadium with refineries in the background in Deer Park, Texas. Credit: Mark Felix/The Texas Tribune

How Texas Diminished a Once-Rigorous Air Pollution Monitoring Team 

By Dylan Baddour, Peter Aldhous
A cow stands next to a non-producing oil well in Caldwell County, Texas. Gas was venting out of the well even though oil is not being produced. Credit: Courtesy of Abigail Edgar

Study Finds High Levels of Hydrogen Sulfide in Central Texas Oilfield

By Martha Pskowski
A researcher from the National Renewable Energy Laboratory reviews hail damage at a solar array at Fort Carson in Colorado in 2019. Credit: Dennis Schroeder/NREL

How Can Solar Farms Defend Against Biblical-Level Hailstorms?

By Dan Gearino

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