More Toxic Trinity

From the Fort Worth Weekly. 

Morris’ job involved crawling around in dangerous chemicals, often dumping the hazardous material into underground pits and sometimes down the storm drains when the pits were full and his supervisors wanted to cut corners.

The company’s old employee roster reads like an oncologist’s former patient list. An alarming number of Technicoat staffers have passed away from cancer, heart disease, or illnesses that are linked to chemical exposure. The two Morris brothers, who now live in Arkansas, fear they may suffer the same fate as their father. Robert worked at Technicoat for five years, and Gary for six. (A third brother, Joe, worked there for a shorter time and has had much less severe medical problems.)

A recent toxicology examination revealed that Robert, now 54, has dangerously high amounts of barium in his blood. That’s one of the carcinogenic chemicals that Technicoat used in its coating for missile launchers.

WHO are they?

BNK

Check them out at FlushTRWD.com 

YOU can't afford not to.

Location, location, location...

Is it any wonder that the Fort Worth Star-Telegram would have large color ads for the Tarrant Regional Water District, right here at election season?

This is the first time we've seen the board members listed by name.

What about YOU?  

Is that free advertising?

Wait, WHO paid for that?  Oh yes, YOU.

The recent editorial by the supposed "paper of record" concerning the Water Board election said, "Voters shouldn't be misled: The May local elections are serious business."

We couldn't agree more.

WHOSE offices are those under the Star-Telegram neon's?  None other than the Trinity River Vision Authority, also known as the economic development branch of the Tarrant Regional Water District.

WHO pays for that? That's right, you, dear reader.

Wanna stop paying? Pay attention. There is an election coming. YOU can't afford to miss it. 

Help is not on the way...

Help is stuck in traffic on 820.

We continually read on the DFW Scanner that "emergency crews are having difficulty accessing the scene" when something happens on 820 or 183 in the "construction zone". 

Today we witnessed it firsthand.  In the picture above you see the Fire Department, the Police Department and the EMT's sitting in a traffic jam, nowhere near the accident.  With no way to get through.

How would you feel if it were YOUR family they were trying to reach?  Is another two years without an emergency option an option? 

WHO's in charge here anyway?

Wedgewood Square and Overton South

Tonight two hundred people packed into a church and listened to Fort Worth City officials drone on about zoning.   WHY?

Because they wanted a say in what takes place in their neighborhood.  They, like several other neighborhood groups (Oakhurst, Mallard Cove - anyone see a pattern here?), had to find out about these proposed changes, then fight to get enough time to get meetings scheduled.

We wondered why Chesapeake was there, apparently they own land there too.  We're sure they came just to be "good neighbors".

The whole system seems to be backwards.  You ask those it will affect the most, after you do your studies?  Shouldn't you start there?  The meeting seemed like many others we've attended in the county over the past several years.  Talk and show slides until the crowd gets restless, beg everyone not to attack each other, stall...but at some point the residents will take the floor.  Be it in a church or city hall, they came for a reason. 

Some left the meeting mad, "After listening to you tell us what YOU want for an hour, now we can't ask questions?"  Some were outright angry and some were very well spoken. 

Most answers involved the response, "You would need to talk to Councilman Jordan about that".  That was followed up with, "WHERE is he?"  He is in Austin.  At a conference.  While his constituents feel run over and ignored.  More of the Fort Worth Way?

What's in the water in Tarrant county?

Durango knows.

He's got the latest on the Betsy Price and Robert Cluck blog to Congress about a Tarrant County "water war" and the latest on the Tarrant Regional Water District candidates. 

Now might be a good time to start paying attention.  YOU can't afford not to.

Not if she can help it...

We've told you about Eleanor Fairchild.  She is the one who was arrested with Daryl Hannah, ON HER OWN PROPERTY.

Read the latest in the FW Weekly.  Don't think it can't happen to YOU or your great grandmother.  This is Texas, sadly, it happens every day.  Though this time it's a Canadian company taking her land.

“I called the soil conservation people at the U.S. Department of Agriculture, but they said they had no jurisdiction. I called TCEQ (Texas Commission on Environmental Quality), and they said they couldn’t do anything about erosion. I called the Railroad Commission, and they said they only gave out pipeline permits but have no jurisdiction over them. I called everybody — the Department of Transportation pipeline safety people, the Army Corps of Engineers — who gave the permit to TransCanada to cross my creek and got no response. Even the EPA said they couldn’t do anything until there is a spill.”

“I’ve learned that our government is not there to help us — not when you’re fighting the big guys,” she said. “I think I’ll be an activist for the rest of my life so that others don’t have to go through the same thing.”