Scheduled for 2023, a nearly $1 billion Ship Channel dredging project is going to deepen the environmental hole for communities already overburdened with pollution by dirtying the air with smog-forming pollutants and life-threatening particulate matter.
Port Houston, the project’s sponsor, and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers decided that using new, cleaner equipment would be too expensive. Instead, they’re full steam ahead with a project whose environmental and health burdens from old, dirty, diesel-powered dredges will be borne by surrounding communities and that could push our region into a more severe level of noncompliance with ozone standards — and the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality is on board with it.
It shouldn’t be this way. Join us in asking the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and the Port to reduce pollution from this project and invest in our air quality and health.
The Army Corps of Engineers is receiving comments on the project through 11:59 p.m. Monday, December 21, 2020. They need to know that:
- There is already too much air pollution along the Houston Ship Channel
- These new emissions could worsen pollution standard violations and cause new violations of standards
- The Corps and Port Houston should be required to fully offset all the new pollution from the dredging operation
- The Corps should provide supplemental monitoring for the major pollutants near the Ship Channel and downwind from construction activities
Express your concerns to your representatives:
Contact your Harris County Elected Officials
Contact your City Council Members