My understanding of the situation is, they have a back-up generator; the problem arose when the transformer that feeds the pumps failed… and the back-up transformer failed, as well.
A bad analogy would be if you flipped all the circuit breakers going into your domicile ‘off’.
There is plenty of power available… it just can’t get past those circuit breakers.
The culprits here are those transformers, not the grid.
Sure, the grid is shit, but that’s as intended.
Those suppliers make much more money when it breaks, so they have no incentive to fix anything.
Even better, even though the suppliers soaked the retailers, the customers are the ones paying for it. About a third of my monthly bill goes to pay off those billionaire suppliers.
The state of Texas is running a massive budget surplus, & a fraction of that could be used to pay it all off, but noooo…
The “irregularity” they perceive may have to do with the failure of their gerrymandering efforts here and there. For the GOP, a successful cheat and unfair advantage should work on a regular basis.
FTFY.
And the last thing I want is for Czar Abbott to be paying attention to Houston; even now, the heavily fascist Legislature is formulating the ratfuckery they intend to inflict upon the proles in the upcoming session…
Yep. Otherwise, it’s the other side that is cheating.
Lord Dampnut showed the way…
Again??
I’ve lived here over 55 years & can’t think of any instance when the water was ‘poisoned’…
Besides, in this incident, the water wasn’t ‘poisoned’ in the first place!
The water pressure fell below state minimums for a few minutes, that’s all.
Not sure where you are getting your information from, but there are lots of places with far worse air quality:
These seven cities/areas scored the worst for annual average particle air pollution:
Bakersfield, California
Fresno-Madera-Hanford and Visalia, California (tie)
San Jose-San Francisco-Oakland
Los Angeles–Long Beach
Medford-Grants Pass, Oregon
Fairbanks, Alaska
Phoenix-Mesa
These seven cities had the most number of days of unhealthy air for particle pollution out of 221 metro areas:
Fresno-Madera-Hanford, California
Bakersfield, California
Fairbanks, Alaska
San Jose-San Francisco-Oakland
Redding-Red Bluff, California
Chico, California
Sacramento-Roseville, California
These seven areas had the worst ground ozone pollution out of 226 around the nation:
Los Angeles-Long Beach
Bakersfield, California
Visalia, California
Fresno-Madera-Hanford, California
Phoenix-Mesa
San Diego-Chula Vista-Carlsbad
Denver-Aurora
Doesn’t look like Houston is alone in regards to Superfund sites…
What’s that got to do with a water treatment plant losing pressure?
So, which is it? You don’t live in Houston?
You are suggesting that no one should live in Houston?
The former? The latter? Both?
Houston didn’t lose power! A transformer that powered pumps at the treatment plant failed.
Perhaps you are confusing this incident with the State-wide outage last winter.
Would you like me to recant my post? If so I will.
Houston has housing adjacent chemical plants. This is why zoning laws matter because that is bad. Having lived in most states my time in Houston was nearly (not quite) the worst.
Air pollutants are as you are very correct in pointing out not unique to Houston and the urban environment makes pollution of soil rather moot because nothing much is grown there, almost.
Thank you, killer links and strong research!
None the less do yourself a favor and don’t live in Houston.
3 minutes of power failure poisons the water for how many million souls? Lame. It’s a small world, but, not so small you must live in our Perto-Metro: Houston.
If it helps you settle down I don’t advise living in Dallas either. However they have zoning laws that prevent kids from sleeping nextdoor to a chemical plant, sorta, way more than Houston does.
Note: My favorite Greek restaurant in the US is in Houston so I will give it points for that.
You have your opinions, I have mine… and so does everyone else.
We are all like blind people trying to describe an elephant…
This is true in a few areas, but the plants themselves are generally clustered around the Ship Channel on the east side. In some cases, the plants were originally out in the boonies & the housing encroached upon them.
In any case, it’s not like the whole damn city is interspersed with refineries.
All the zoning laws in the world won’t do any good when the wind shifts…
That’s interesting… because when you get to the top of some of the freeway flyovers, all you see are trees.
Granted, the coastal prairies are on the northwest, west & south sides of town, but you are going to be 10-20 miles from downtown…
I tried to find recent information.
Why? I’ve been here for 55 years, & it hasn’t killed me yet.
And damned if I want to drive on, or shovel snow every friggin winter.
THE WATER WASN’T POISONED!
The pressure fell below State mandated standards for a few minutes, and the city did not
lose power.
A person on the Pacifica station here uses that term.
A few things about that article:
Firstly, that photo of Houston on a smoggy day is kind of a rarity, nowadays. When I moved here in '67, those days were common… on the worst days, your eyes would water… not to mention the stench.
The running joke was, “That’s the smell of money!”
Secondly, that article is from 2007.
Thirdly, it mentioned monitoring in cooperation with NASA. Back in 2010, they flew one of their modded B-57 research planes overhead. Freaked everyone out…
I was born & raised in Texas, & have relatives scattered all over, so I’m familiar with the place.
You would be hard-pressed to find a refinery of any size in or near Dallas, anyway, so the point is moot. Either way, you are still going to be downwind at one point or another.
Yeah, you can find nearly any cuisine here.
Guilty as charged, yer honor.
Czar Abbott [and the rest of the Troika] now has full rein to let his christofascist flag fly.
He wants to be POTUS so bad, he can’t stand it.
