The latest environment news from The Texas Tribune.
Two counties, dozens of first responders and hundreds of neighbors claim in court documents that the Arkema chemical manufacturing plans committed negligence. Environmental advocates say lax industry regulations exacerbated the disaster. Full Story
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"We funded the initial down payment of $1.6 billion," Trump said of border wall funding Friday. "We’re going to be starting work – literally – on Monday on not only some new wall ... but also fixing existing walls.” Full Story
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A report released Thursday by geophysicists at Southern Methodist University says a 4,000-square-mile area near the "Wink Sinks" is showing signs of alarming instability. Full Story
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A study by a Texas environmental group and a California think tank found that about half of Texas’ major industrial facilities released illegal levels of pollution into rivers, lakes and other waterways over the past two years. Full Story
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Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials say the detention center where the bites occurred is being inspected. Full Story
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The ruling is an apparent victory for Texas in a legal battle that has dragged on for more than five years. The states are bickering over the distribution of water from the Rio Grande. Those allocations are laid out in the 1938 Rio Grande Compact. Full Story
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The Bois d'Arc Creek Reservoir was recently approved for its second $500 million loan as the project nears the beginning of construction in North Texas. The dam and accompanying man-made lake will be Texas' first new major reservoir in almost two decades. Full Story
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U.S. District Judge Gonzalo Curiel, who President Donald Trump once asserted could not be fair to him because of Curiel's Mexican heritage, has ruled in favor of the White House in a lawsuit over construction of a border wall. Full Story
In the six months since state and federal officials decided to use the biggest housing recovery in modern history to rewrite the nation's disaster playbook, neighborly networks and organized charity have buoyed disheartened Texans on the coast. Full Story
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Texas voters’ approval toward the federal government’s response to Hurricane Harvey fell since we last checked in October, from 57 percent to 48 percent, according to the latest University of Texas/Texas Tribune Poll. Full Story
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The U.S. Department of Energy's inspector general says that a now-bankrupt company behind a defunct West Texas "clean coal" power plant spent more than $1.3 million in federal stimulus funds on things like spa service, alcohol, first-class travel and limousine services. Full Story
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Though Folo Media is suspending its operations, Texas Tribune reporter Morgan Smith will forge ahead solo, covering poverty and inequity across Texas with a special focus on her home city of San Antonio. Full Story
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Just weeks after false reports of a nuclear missile terrified Hawaiians, an erroneous tsunami warning was sent to individuals in Texas and along the East Coast. Full Story
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Researchers at the University of Texas at San Antonio have found that development along the Blanco River intensified the impact of a 40-foot wall of water that gushed down the waterway on Memorial Day weekend 2015. Full Story
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Kathleen Hartnett White, who once headed the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality, may no longer be in line to serve as a top White House environmental official. Full Story
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The Tribune teamed up with PBS NewsHour to tell the story of one Houston family trying to make their flood-damaged home livable again while they wait for federal aid that's been too slow to arrive. Full Story
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Just five months after the monster storm gave Texas its wettest month in history, much of the state is now in a drought — including areas that saw historic flooding. Full Story
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Lawyers spent almost an hour in the Texas Supreme Court arguing whether Laredo’s 2015 ban on plastic grocery bags was illegal. The future of bag bans in cities across the state could hinge on the case. Full Story
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Hurricanes Harvey, Irma and Maria combined with devastating Western wildfires and other natural catastrophes to make 2017 the most expensive year on record for disasters, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration reported Monday. Full Story
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Last year saw the most destructive Atlantic hurricane season on record. How did we get here? We investigated by wading through the damage left by Hurricane Harvey in Houston. Full Story
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