Bayou City Waterkeeper

EPA has failed to protect communities from dangerous fertilizer waste for decades. Major spills of phosphogypsum waste - a highly, acidic, cancer-causing waste - happened in Houston in 1999 and 2007, shutting down the Houston Ship Channel and contaminating Buffalo Bayou. Communities from Louisiana to Florida are continuing to face active threats from this unregulated waste as a result of the EPA's failure to act. Our lawsuit intends to get our communities and waters the protections we deserve. https://lnkd.in/gUQM69tb

Our very own Usman Mahmood, MPA is highlighting the importance of addressing the critical water issues in Texas!

President Trump declared a national energy emergency on his first day of office, prompting the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to mark for fast-track review more than 600 applications for permits to destroy wetlands or impact waterways. On the fast-track list are 60 across Texas and 15 around Houston, including the controversial Sea Port Oil Terminal project. Read more: https://lnkd.in/gmfkf-ZY

Join us for a webinar on Thurs. Feb. 20, 12-1:30 pm to learn more about our policy demands in our first-ever policy agenda. See links in the bio to register and read the agenda. We will have Spanish interpretation available. Register: https://lnkd.in/gFg-AURv Read policy agenda: https://lnkd.in/gpU7JCYn

We enjoyed seeing so many folks at the Capitol interested in learning more about our policy priorities for the 89th Texas Legislature and beyond. Thanks to everyone who joined us! We're excited to share our priorities - please take a look and let us know if you would like to learn more or discuss further: bit.ly/TLW89th National Wildlife Federation The Nature Conservancy Sierra Club Lone Star Chapter Hill Country Alliance Galveston Bay Foundation Bayou City Waterkeeper

3Ls and new grads: There's still time to apply for our two-year post-graduate Environmental Justice legal fellowship for 2025 or start thinking about your application for 2026. We're accepting applications on a rolling basis until the position is filled. As part of the process, we will support your application for external sources of funding to cover the costs of your fellowship. Read more: https://lnkd.in/gm-Y5uTZ

Are you a law student at Texas Southern University—Thurgood Marshall School of Law? Are you interested in working on environmental justice issues? This fully-funded summer fellowship opportunity is for you, come work with a local environmental justice nonprofit for the summer of 2025. Applications due March 15th, 2025.

NEWS??? Per a new report from the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), he U.S. needs to invest $8.8 billion a year for families to have permanent relief from high water costs. This is a solvable problem if we support bills like Rep. Rashida Tlaib’s H2O UP Act to ensure every family has access to #SafeAffordableWater now and in the future. ?? Learn more from the #WECRCaucus here: https://lnkd.in/ecgpHc2t

Industrial facilities that produce?plastics and their ingredients?across the U.S. dump wastewater with nearly unlimited nutrient pollution and other cancer-causing toxins directly into waterways,?according to new analysis?from our partners at Environmental Integrity Project. "The EPA has not updated regulation of wastewater from plastics manufacturing plants for more than 30 years," said Kristen Schlemmer, our senior legal director, at a press conference last week. She said the delay flies in the face of a Clean Water Act requirement to revisit the standards every five years, and has left facilities free to release certain pollutants at will. "Some of the worst actors are here in our backyard in Texas," Schlemmer said. "The consequences are clear. Water across the Houston region does not meet basic water quality standards, and in many cases, is not safe for drinking, swimming or fishing." https://lnkd.in/g9zQwECV

It’s encouraging to see the work of Bayou City Waterkeeper pushing forward critical water justice issues across this region—towards real solutions!