In June, as floodwaters on the San Jacinto River receded, a geoscientist with the Texas Railroad Commission warned colleagues that an oil spill had escaped into Lake Houston. The commission could expect a rash of calls from people returning home, he said in an internal email.
Despite the warning, the commission appears not to have positively identified the company that owned the leaking tank battery — much less penalized it.
Worse, perhaps, the commission apparently did nothing to assess what might have occurred downstream, where upscale houses nestled against the water’s edge northeast of Houston’s George Bush Intercontinental Airport.