Environment

The dust and wind in West Texas conspire to keep front steps and porches coated in a layer of grit. But in Socorro and other rural communities near El Paso, another nuisance has plagued residents for months: red flour beetles.

Texas lawmakers are weighing whether the law was properly applied in convicting death row inmate Robert Roberson, whose execution was blocked last week. Texas Parks and Wildlife’s annual Pollinator BioBlitz continues through October 27, celebrating the fall migration of monarch butterflies and bringing awareness to all that pollinators do for Texas.

While residents smelled rotten eggs, the state’s environmental agency said it has not detected any air pollution.

A recent report from Inside Climate News found that the state's environmental regulators are not holding polluters as accountable as they once did. The Texas Department of Transportation will receive more than $5.5 billion from the federal government for infrastructure improvements. And the U.S. Supreme Court is revisiting a dispute over shipping nuclear waste from across the country to a site in far West Texas.

A controversial plan to ship nuclear waste from across the country to a site in rural West Texas has been blocked since last year after Texas prevailed in a federal lawsuit. The high court has now agreed to take up the case.

Conservationists and cattle ranchers are working together to restore grassland for the lesser prairie chicken. The bird used to roam Kansas, but has lost most of its habitat to crop production.

The EPA is currently facing a lawsuit on behalf of farmers from Johnson County, Texas, after the presence of PFAS in fertilizers allegedly infected crops and resulted in the death of livestock.

Permian Basin Containers burst into flames on July 23. Now, local officials have issued a disaster declaration in response and nearby residents worry chemicals released in the blaze have contaminated local groundwater.

KTTZ's Samantha Larned has more on a 5.1-magnitude earthquake that hit the West Texas city of Ackerly. And The Texas House of Representatives State Affairs Committee heard testimony yesterday about the investigation into what caused the largest wildfire in Texas history to burn more than one million acres of the panhandle in February.

Ector County has issued a disaster declaration in response to pollution from a recent chemical fire at an industrial facility outside of Odessa. KERA’s Katherine Hobbs reports that the Texas Civil War Museum will close its doors in October. And Lubbock Mayor Mark McBrayer will be holding Coffee with the Mayor, beginning with District 1 on Wednesday at 7 a.m.