The Briefing Room
State Chapters => Texas => Topic started by: corbe on April 17, 2019, 09:10:08 pm
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A creek flowing to the Colorado River turned black. Now the state has sued the alleged polluter.
Residents near Altair began complaining that Skull Creek reeked of chemicals. The Texas attorney general's office says a local company is to blame.
by Carlos Anchondo April 17, 2019
(https://thumbnails.texastribune.org/x4oMKHlUek4bpOuYa2AK8NhP-No=/850x570/smart/filters:quality(80)/https://static.texastribune.org/media/files/021f30161174e4077a3acea2377ae9b4/09_Skull_Creek_Pollution_MS_TT.jpg)
Skull Creek flows black as it crosses over a country road downstream from Inland Environmental & Remediation Inc. near Altair on April 14, 2019.
ALTAIR – For more than two months, the waters of Skull Creek have flowed black, its surface covered in an iridescent sheen. Yellowed fish skeletons line the pebbled banks of the Colorado River tributary and a dizzying, chemical odor hangs in the air.
The odor is so strong that Julie Schmidt says she can smell it inside her house.
She and her husband bought 10 acres along the creek in December with visions of an idyllic country upbringing for their children, ages 10 and 2. Now, she isn't sure they should play outside.
“Last summer you could go into the creek behind the house and it was crystal clear. You could play in it, you could fish,†said Schmidt, who moved from nearby Garwood and has lived in Colorado County her entire life. “Now you don’t want to touch it. You pick up a rock, turn it upside down, and it’s completely black.â€
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https://www.texastribune.org/2019/04/17/texas-attorney-general-sues-inland-recylcling-and-remediation/ (https://www.texastribune.org/2019/04/17/texas-attorney-general-sues-inland-recylcling-and-remediation/)
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This is horrifying.
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How odd this story is. The Colorado rivershed does not include any land in Texas.
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It was our Colorado River before it was yours.
(https://www.streamingaround.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/11/ColoradoTexas_Watershed1.png)
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It was our Colorado River before it was yours.
(https://www.streamingaround.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/11/ColoradoTexas_Watershed1.png)
That explains it. It's not the river held back by Hoover Dam. It's a local thing. Then pollute away, it does not affect the river I see from my Castle.
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“It’s hard to imagine that the state agencies in charge of protecting our environment and natural resources in Texas would not act quicker to tell people that live on this creek whether there’s a threat to their health or their livestock,†said Prause, who oversees emergency response for the county.
sounds like it is time to investigate some folks' finances....
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sounds like it is time to investigate some folks' finances....
Have had unfavorable dealings with that local county judge dealing with local businesses.
Don't hold your breath.
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It was our Colorado River before it was yours.
(https://www.streamingaround.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/11/ColoradoTexas_Watershed1.png)
Absolutely. Their river was named in 1921.
https://www.shraboise.com/2014/11/11314-whats-in-a-name-a-brief-history-of-the-colorado-river/ (https://www.shraboise.com/2014/11/11314-whats-in-a-name-a-brief-history-of-the-colorado-river/)
The mighty Colorado River has not always been known as such. SHRA researchers were recently examining plats made by General Land Office surveyors along the Colorado River and discovered that the river has only been known by that name since 1921.
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Absolutely. Their river was named in 1921.
That's very interesting. Never knew that.
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And, not only that, but there is a persistent rumor that the Colorado River was really named the Brazos (arms) for all the offshoots, and the Brazos was really named the Colorado because it is red in places, but the names got transposed on an early map.
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And, not only that, but there is a persistent rumor that the Colorado River was really named the Brazos (arms) for all the offshoots, and the Brazos was really named the Colorado because it is red in places, but the names got transposed on an early map.
Make sense to me.
The Colorado, as you may know, is the river with the wrong name. That word in Spanish means red, or colored, and is not descriptive of the water of this stream.
The Handbook of Texas, which has traveled with me ever since the first version was published, has an entry about a Spanish explorer named Alonso de León. He was running around in this area in the late 1600s. Historians give him credit for naming a stream the Colorado.
When he did it, however, he was almost certainly looking at the Brazos. Colorado would have been an appropriate name for the Brazos with its red water.
The Handbook says that when all those Spaniards were exploring Texas, the names of the two streams were apparently interchanged. If this mix-up hadn't been straightened out, today we'd be calling the Brazos the Colorado.
I don't know what we'd be calling the Colorado. Surely not the Brazos. Various explorers had other names for this stream. One was San Clemente. Another was La Sablonnière (French for sand pit).
My favorite is Pashohono, which is what the resident Indians called the Colorado a long time before any explorers showed up. That's a name with a real ring to it.
https://www.chron.com/life/hale/article/Hale-Two-Texas-rivers-one-with-wrong-name-1930830.php (https://www.chron.com/life/hale/article/Hale-Two-Texas-rivers-one-with-wrong-name-1930830.php)
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Make sense to me.
https://www.chron.com/life/hale/article/Hale-Two-Texas-rivers-one-with-wrong-name-1930830.php (https://www.chron.com/life/hale/article/Hale-Two-Texas-rivers-one-with-wrong-name-1930830.php)
Thanks @Elderberry!