The city of Pearland’s Odor Task Force is hosting a meeting on February 8th to give some updates on the saga of the Shadow Creek Ranch stench, the Chronicle‘s Margaret Kadifa reports. The map above shows industrial sites noted by the TCEQ in the vicinity of the master-planned community during the environmental agency’s long-running search for the source of the odor. Early last summer the come-and-go smell was finally officially linked to emissions from the slowly rising Blue Ridge Landfill, which sits across FM 521 from the subdivision, just outside the Pearland border in Fresno, TX. The agency says that 81 investigations had been launched in response to more than 1,900 complaints from the neighborhood, as of January 1st; TCEQ started sending enforcement letters to the landfill in October, and a class action lawsuit on behalf of area residents was filed in November.
- Pearland To Hold Public Meeting on Odor [Houston Chronicle]
- Pearland Odor Complaints Fact Sheet [TCEQ]
- Blue Ridge Landfill near Pearland Cited for ‘Nuisance’ Odor Violation [Community Impact]
- Previously on Swamplot: TCEQ Takes 26th Crack at Solving Stench Mystery in Landfill-Adjacent Shadow Creek Ranch; Blue Ridge Landfill Settlement: Shadow Creek Ranch’s New Race Against Waste; Raising a Bigger Stink: Shadow Creek Ranch Residents Still Fighting 170-Foot Uphill Battle; Hurricane Detection System To Be Blocked by 170-Foot-High Pile of Garbage
Map of industrial sites and air sampling locations around Shadow Creek Ranch: TCEQ
The current owners of Jimmy’s Ice House at the corner of White Oak Dr. and Threlkeld St. are in the middle of working out a sales agreement with serial redeveloper Braun Enterprises, Jim Reynolds reports this week. 
The judge judging the 
The 
“Abolishing arbitrarily-bounded entities with taxing powers like the HCFCD and instead creating entities that are specific to individual watersheds seems like it might make some sense. I do worry that certain areas, especially less affluent ones, would suffer from poor or corrupt leadership; and you can’t simply merge watersheds as the T.E.A. would merge school districts. However, that’d certainly be more democratic and accountable. That’s a trade-off which might be worth making.” [
