EPA's Region 6 News and Events

Region Receives More than $2 million to Clean Up Contaminated Sites and Revitalize Communities

EPA will award over $2 million in grants in our region to help communities clean and redevelop contaminated properties, boost local economies and create jobs while protecting public health.

• The city of Texarkana, Texas, will receive a $900,000 brownfields revolving loan fund grant to establish a sustainable source of cleanup funds for Texarkana’s Targeted Brownfields area. The redevelopment of this area will expand economic opportunity and address vacancy and decaying facilities that have caused an out-migration of businesses and homeowners from the area.
• The New Orleans Regional Planning Commission (RPC) will receive two $200,000 grants to allow continued expansion of the Brownfields Redevelopment Program. Building on its past successes, the RPC will reach out to underprivileged and economically distressed communities to address Brownfields sites ideal for redevelopment as locally-based commercial and retail sites, health care clinics, community meeting space, learning centers and neighborhood parks and gardens.
• Oklahoma City will receive a $350,000 grant to perform environmental site assessments for the Core to Shore Park Project, which seeks to revitalize the city’s urban core by increasing connectivity between downtown Oklahoma City and the shore of the Oklahoma River.
• The city of Irving, Texas, will receive two $200,000 grants to inventory sites contaminated or potentially contaminated with hazardous substances and conduct environmental site assessments. The city has focused its brownfields redevelopment efforts within Heritage Crossing Project, a mixed-use, transit oriented development that capitalizes on the Trinity Rail Express.

For more information on these grants, access the full press releases here.

Water Is Worth It video project

To help commemorate the 40th anniversary of the Clean Water Act, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is asking people to send in a 15-second video clip about the important role that water plays in their life. Each video should include the phrase “Water Is Worth It,” but the rest is up to the entrant. EPA will post selected videos on its website and Facebook page.

To learn more and register, visit the Water is Worth It page. Fill out a video entry form, and submit your entry as a video response to the promotional video on EPA’s YouTube page at www.youtube.com/USEPAgov. Video submissions must be received by September 14, 2012.

Frisco, Texas teen receives the President’s Environmental Youth Award

After taking an environmental science class in her high school, Ainsley Campbell of Frisco, Texas became concerned about the long-term harmful effects of pesticides, as well as the large number of disease-carrying insects in her local parks. Not content with just being aware of these problems, Ainsley did something about it as part of her Girl Scout Gold Award project. She worked with the City of Frisco to build and hang ten bat boxes in Beavers Bend Park near her home. In studying Frisco’s insect situation, Ainsley learned that one bat can eat thousands of insects every day and that the rapid development of her community had helped destroy the wooded areas where bats formerly lived. Ainsley’s goal in her project was to help bring back the bat population and to cut down on the number of insects without the use of harmful pesticides. In recognition of her environmental imitative, Ainsley received the President’s Environmental Youth Award.

The President’s Environmental Youth Award program promotes awareness of our nation’s natural resources and encourages positive community involvement. Since 1971, the President of the United States has joined with EPA to recognize young people across the U.S. for protecting our nation’s air, water, land, and ecology.

Ainsley is excited about starting her program in environmental policy and management at the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania this fall. The Beavers Bend Park project and her President’s Environmental Youth Award experience are a great start for achieving her goal of a career in environmental science. 

More information on the President’s Environmental Youth Award

May is American Wetlands Month

May 2012 marks the 22nd anniversary of American Wetlands Month, a time for the EPA and its partners in federal, state, tribal, local and private sector organizations to celebrate one of nature’s most productive ecosystems. Wetlands, often referred to as the "kidneys" of the landscape, are the vital link between land and water, where the flow of water, the cycling of nutrients and the energy of the sun meet to produce highly productive ecosystems with unique plant and animal life. In the United States, there are different types of wetlands such as swamps, marshes, bogs and fens, each with its own unique characteristics.

Wetlands are facing numerous challenges, such as climate change, sea level rise, increasing storm severity, drought, energy development, species decline and expansion of infrastructure, driving the need for wetland conservation. The EPA's Wetlands Program is dedicated to protecting these important ecosystems.

More information on America’s Wetlands

You can help.  Participate in one of the many regional activities planned during the month of May.

EPA awards over $219,000 in Environmental Education Grants

The Environmental Protection Agency has awarded over $219,000 in five environmental education grants to organizations and projects in the five Region 6 states.

The Grants Program sponsored by EPA's Office of Environmental Education and supports projects that enhance the public's awareness, knowledge, and skills to help people make informed decisions that affect environmental quality.  

The awardees are:

• The Dolphin Exploration and Vessel Adventure Program by the Texas Marine Mammal Stranding Network, which will receive $43,407 to enhance the educational experience for 1,000 students and science teachers in the Greater Houston area.  News Release
• The Ozark Nature Mentoring Initiative and Ozark Tracker Society, which received $77,021 to create environmental mentoring communities in their local areas.  The program promotes the development of training for people interested in teaching others about nature.  News Release
• The Up with Trees organization in Tulsa, Oklahoma, will receive $23,666 to enable high school aged participants to intern in a six-week Youth Citizen Forestry Program.  The students will learn about planting and preserving trees, forestry and horticultural careers and sustainable forestry practices.  News Release
• The Las Cruces, New Mexico based Asombro Institute for Science Education received $25,000 to promote increased awareness and understanding of the Chihuahuan Desert ecosystem through an innovative schoolyard program. News Release
• The Gulfsouth Youth Biodiesel Project is training 70 out-of-school youths to collect and recycle used cooking oil into biodiesel fuel. Operation REACH, Inc. is receiving $50,000 from the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) Environmental Education Grants program to introduce students to opportunities in the Green Collar workforce.   News Release

More information on the EPA’s Environmental Education Grant program

May is the start of the ozone season in Region 6

Scientists have compared the irritation caused by ozone to that of sunburn. During ozone exposure, lung tissue becomes inflamed, then flakes and peels like skin exposed to too much sunlight. Extensive time spent in poor air quality may damage tissue permanently, thereby degrading overall lung function.

In Region 6, ozone is of great concern. In the high altitude stratosphere, ozone acts as a necessary shield for incoming UV radiation, protecting humans, plants, and wildlife, but if produced nearer to the ground, ozone causes serious health problems, especially in the human respiratory system.

Region 6 has high levels of ozone because of the sunny and hot climate, the sprawling urban population and some of the largest industrial complexes in the United States, all of which lead to the creation of ground-level ozone. Ground level ozone is formed when pollutants emitted by cars, power plants, industrial boilers, refineries, chemical plants and other sources react chemically in the presence of sunlight.

Some people are especially sensitive to ozone, including children, outside workers, and respiratory disease sufferers. Some pollutants can have multiple harmful effects. For example, a high concentration of, nitrogen oxide, is especially dangerous because it leads to the formation of acid rain, particle pollution, and ozone.

Because of the efforts of the EPA and our state partners, levels of ozone in the atmosphere have been reduced despite increases in population and industrial output.

May is Asthma Awareness Month

Join us as we observe Asthma Awareness Month. Take part in one of the many asthma awareness events throughout Region 6 and around the United States. Thousands of organizations across the country join together each May to increase asthma awareness. Asthma affects almost 25 million people in the U.S. and Asthma Awareness Month promotes public attention to the common asthma triggers and effective treatment options.

Visit the Asthma Community Network for information about upcoming asthma awareness events in Region 6.

Port Arthur Environmental Justice Showcase Community project

In March 2012, the EPA hosted a community meeting in Port Arthur, Texas to provide an update on the Environmental Justice Showcase Community project. During the meeting, residents had an opportunity to ask questions about current and future activities.

The Showcase project is a culmination of efforts led by EPA to engage other government agencies, the Environmental Justice community, petrochemical facilities surrounding the community and other stakeholders in a collaborative effort to address community issues.

The EPA’s work with stakeholders to target specific issues resulted in several successes, including: $1,000,000 for community health services; creating an environmental profile and providing training that informed residents about conditions related to health concerns; education about emergency response procedures and work to address specific community concerns about notification; $330,000 in Brownfields Assessments; and a commitment to work towards relocation of residents living in public housing on the fenceline of industry.

Successes were the result of work by the following Stakeholder Workgroups: Environmental Quality and Emergency Response; Community Health; Westside Community and Downtown Revitalization; Energy Efficiency; Unemployment and Skill Development; and Housing. The city’s new Environmental Justice Initiative focuses on these same six areas and the Workgroups remain in place to build on the success of the Westside Community project.

EPA completes cleanup of former drum refurbishment facility

The EPA has completed a cleanup at the Scrub-A-Dubb site in Lubbock, Texas, making it ready for commercial re-use. The site was an inactive drum refurbisher with wastes threatening nearby residents, drinking water supplies and sensitive ecosystems. EPA removed 46,000 drumswith about 4500 containing hazardous substances. In addition to the drums, the EPA addressed liquids, solids and sludges in containment areas, pits and seven underground storage tanks. The EPA removed about 3500 tons of contaminated soil.

More information on the Scrubb-A-Dubb facility

Drought Issues

Cycles of drought have affected many parts of the country, devastating vegetation and wildlife and raising concerns about water supply and water purity. Drought can bring a variety of problems to communities, such as challenges to energy generation and increased industrial and municipal costs, which means planning and managing water use are critical issues for policy makers at every level. Drought can also affect wider ecosystems by destroying trees and wildlife, changing and damaging water quality, and harming estuaries and freshwater habitats for birds and fish.

More information