Our lives depend on EPA strictly enforcing the rules

Clean air regulations

Regarding “With Port Neches burning, we need EPA rules,” (A13, Nov. 30): Professor Thomas McGarity is right. We desperately need strict EPA regulations and strong enforcement of them.

I graduated from Port Neches-Groves High School a little before McGarity and remember the refinery across the back fence from the school was just a normal part of the scenery there. It was one of many in the area providing work and paychecks for so many families.

On the daily ride to high school down a road next to the Neches River, there is a bridge crossing a little stream coming from one of the refineries. I always watched to see the color of the murky water that flowed under the bridge into the river. I remember nasty yellows, greens, browns and, once, an ominous purplish tint. Sometimes there was even foam on the water. Despite that, environmental concerns were not a big issue then, so my family and hundreds of others

would go boating and water-skiing on that river’s coffee-colored water every summer.

The foul refinery odors were just a part of life there. I remember hearing adults sometimes say, “It smells like money.”

Years later after the EPA regulations were in force, I returned to drive down that little river road. To my surprise and great delight, the little stream from the refinery was not only running clear, but the reeds beside it were tall and green. There was actually a tall, white heron fishing in the water.

Strong clean air regulations do work if we insist on enforcement. Our lives depend on it.

Jo Watkins King, Houston

Refusing petro dollars?

Regarding “Some Texas Dems refusing oil money,” (Front page, Nov. 30): Any politician, Republican or Democrat, who claims that he or she would never accept oil money for the political races is just fooling himself or herself, as “petro” dol

lars have a way of finding a path into all facets of life and especially government. Let’s be honest, the petroleum industry is the most important industry in the state. The petroleum and petrochemical industries employ thousands and keep Texas running smoothly; don't think about changing that for some strange ideas known only to liberal wannabes!

Lawrence Keen, Pearland