Texas is the largest state in the continental U.S., and it is known for its wide, open spaces. While many people associate environmental problems with smaller, denser states, the Lone Star State has many issues of its own. Some of the major issues include water pollution, air quality, land conservation, energy sources and waste pollution.
The Texas Parks and Wildlife Department has identified several water environmental concerns that affect the state. They include fish consumption bans, harmful algae blooms, kills and spills, invasive plants and animals, nuisance vegetation, water by region and water quality. Unsafe quantities of mercury in fish and crabs are a high concern for many areas of Texas.
Another major environmental issue is the water supply in the Texas-Mexico border area. An example of this is the maquiladora program established in 1965. It allowed foreign companies (primarily from the U.S. and Asia) to build factories and industrial buildings in Mexico. There are nearly 500 factories near the Rio Grande and Texas, which have created many wastewater and drinking water problems in south Texas.
According to the environmental lobbying organization Texas Impact, factories, power plants, cars, buses, trucks, dry cleaners, wildfires and construction sites cause air pollution. Texas has an abundance of all these, and there are many areas in the state that have been affected by air pollution. The major air pollutants are comprised of ozone, carbon monoxide, nitrogen dioxide, particulate matter and lead, and each one has a threshold in which it becomes dangerous to human health. When it reaches this point in a particular area, the area is classified as a "non-attainment" area. Texas has four non-attainment areas, including Houston/Galveston, Dallas/Ft. Worth, Beaumont/Port Worth and El Paso. Victoria and Corpus Christi are near the non-attainment levels.
Texas has eight major land habitats including the cross timbers, high plains/panhandle, hill country, oak prairie, piney woods, post oak savannah, south Texas plains and trans-pecos areas. It also has millions of wetland acres that are now protected by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. The main environmental concerns affecting Texas land is the influx of development that is removing natural features to replace them with strip malls, industrial parks and high-end planned communities.
While Texas is well known around the world as an oil state, it also has many coal-fired and nuclear power plants. The energy waste has negatively affected the state's air and water qualities. Solar and wind power is now a hot issue in Texas, and there are many clean energy developments taking place there. However, Texans' love of their trucks and large SUVs is still a major issue.
Before federal and state regulations in the 1970s, most of Texas' industrial waste was discarded in landfills, lagoons, pits and surface waters, according to the Texas Environmental Almanac. Because of the long history of these hazardous actions, Texas has polluted groundwater areas, lakes, rivers and streams, as well as damaged vegetation and wildlife. Currently, the Texas Natural Resource Conservation Commission is responsible for issuing permits and regulating programs for all industrial and hazardous waste management facilities. The federal Resource Conservation and Recovery Act also bans disposal of hazardous waste without prior treatment as well.
