txH2O Winter 2020
Water and Health
On Sunday, March 17, 2019, a fire started at the International Terminals Company (ITC) petrochemical plant in Deer Park, Texas. For four days, the fire burned, damaging 11 storage tanks and sending a huge plume of black smoke into the sky. High levels of the carcinogenic chemical benzene forced school closures and shelter-in-place orders in the Deer Park area.
Health at the Nexus of Water Insecurity
Just outside of El Paso, families pay steep prices for trucked-in water to lug home in the Cochran colonia. Cochran is one of 2,300 Texas colonias, which are rural or peri-urban subdivisions along the U.S.-Mexico border that are home to an estimated half a million people. Colonias generally lack the support or resources to connect to nearby water mains.
Dr. Lucas Gregory grew up playing in the woods and streams of East Texas. He’d bring baby alligators home, putting them in the bathtub and gleefully showing his mother before returning them to the stream. He’d spend hours out in the woods — and sometimes, he’d get thirsty.
Throughout history, arsenic has been known as both a poison and a healer. Nicknamed the “king of poisons and poison of kings” since the time of the Roman Empire, it can cause intestinal problems and death after acute exposure and is linked to cancer, cardiovascular disease and diabetes after long-term exposure.
Water Quality Challenges in Irrigation
A group of researchers working with the University of Florida’s SmartPath Center of Excellence is developing a suite of mobile applications that will help farmers monitor the quality of irrigation water on their farms in near-real time to make smart irrigation decisions.
Most people have heard about the infamous Flint, Michigan water crisis where lead leached into the drinking water pipes of some homes after the city’s water utility switched water supplies.
A group of Texas A&M University researchers is leading a study to find new ways to quickly determine whether unknown bacteria in soil and water are friends or foes.
Dr. Virender Sharma, professor in the Texas A&M School of Public Health, has spent most of his research life investigating the abilities of a naturally occurring element — iron — to work wonders in cleaning up water and the environment.
Kathy Wythe’s TWRI Water Footprint
Kathy Wythe, TWRI communications manager for nearly 15 years, retired January 31, 2020. In light of her retirement, her TWRI colleagues wanted to pay tribute to her and her work.
