New Federal TX Environmental Cases Fall From 20 In 1998 To Zero In 2005

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.

Data from the Transactional Records Access Clearing House show, however, that the number of new environmental prosecutions by the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Southern District of Texas dwindled from 20 in fiscal 1998 to zero in 2005, the last year for which figures are available.

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http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/front/4278229.html