06/22/07 7:55am

Biodiesel Production Plant in Carl’s Corner, TexasSure, everybody’s excited about biodiesel because it’s new and rare. But just wait until smelly biodiesel production plants start littering the landscape like fast-food franchises.

If you’ve got $1.95 million, you can set one up too. A company out of Florida is selling “prepackaged,” turnkey biodiesel plants from a German factory. Let them come, and they will build it:

As part of its business-in-a-box plan, Xenerga promises long-term, exclusive deals to purchase waste cooking oil from a network of suppliers whose clients include McDonald’s Corp. and Chili’s Grill & Bar. Xenerga’s supply side also focuses on rendered animal fats like beef tallow, chicken grease and pig fat, all of which are plentiful in Texas.

Interest from this region has been strong, the company told the Houston Business Journal: a plant in west Houston is planned already.

Xenerga also promises to deliver customers willing to buy the estimated 5 million gallons of biodiesel per year that the plants produce.

Each Xenerga plant only takes up half an acre, requires two employees at a time, and can be sited almost anywhere from light industrial parks to rural farmland.

Photo: Biodiesel production plant in Carl’s Corner, Texas, by flickr user Nicola Matsukis

06/01/07 11:37am

Galveston Beach

Phew! It’s okay to get back in the water at Galveston beaches. Those high levels of Enterococcus bacteria reported on Wednesday, indicating high levels of fecal matter, are gone. Everything’s back to normal!

Where does all that shit come from, anyway? Sewage treatment plants, septic tanks, boating waste, and storm water runoff, among other sources. Says the Texas General Land Office:

Water contact should be avoided for 48 hours following periods of heavy, prolonged rainfall.

Thanks for the tip, guys! You can track bacteria levels daily with a handy interactive map tool at the Texas General Land Office’s Beach Watch website. (Their happy slogan: “Check the Net Before You Get Wet!”) Other bacteria to watch out for: various species of Vibrio, which cause a few deaths a year. But don’t worry—you won’t need to check the net for Vibrio levels, because they aren’t monitored at all.

Photo: flickr user rodlkennedy

04/12/07 9:13am

Woodwind Lakes Website Logo

Here’s another Texas tale about discovering oil on your property—only not the way you’ve probably dreamed about. Don’t we all live on top of former oil fields around here? Many of us do, but in Woodwind Lakes, a relatively recent development inside the Beltway and north of 290, some residents are living on the more toxic and unremediated spoils of a former gas processing plant. Houston Press writer Todd Spivak unearths the gooey details:

The Brookses . . . hired Klein, a licensed geologist, to take more soil and groundwater samples from their backyard. The results were chilling.

Klein found elevated levels of benzene, ethylbenzene, styrene and acetone. Total petroleum hydrocarbons were detected as high as 23,000 milligrams per kilogram — more than twice the level deemed safe by state regulators.

Worst of all: A layer of hot, oily sludge was discovered just one to four feet below the surface. Touching the sod or breathing the air likely exposed them to dangerous contamination, Klein says.

There’s real drama here, but we’re only scratching the surface: What about the strange rashes on pets, the angst over diminishing property values, the vicious feuds among neighbors? It all highlights how easy it can be to put up fancy Houston homes just about anywhere. So many tiny scandals wrapped up in this spicy story:

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