Curriculum: Agriculture: Energy
& Environmental Technology [§
Texas Legacy site hosts a variety of educational curricula, lesson
plans, keys and ideas, and supporting media, including video,
databases, transcripts and other material. Below you can find
the TEKS Agriculture standards for Energy and
Environmental Technology, particularly Air Quality
as described in section
119.22(c)(7), with relevant
activities drawn from this archive.
describes air quality improvement:
Excerpts of TEKS Text
(A) discuss air quality standards;
Students can view many TexasLegacy.org materials related to air
quality standards, policies, pollution sources, and control
quality standards come in several types: indoor air
quality, outdoor ambient air quality, and air pollution
attention on indoor air quality has been focused on
second-hand tobacco smoke, though other important
concerns include radon, volatile organics
(especially from paint fumes), molds from damp
conditions, and carbon monoxide and particulates
from heating and cooking. Green building advocates, such
Pliny Fisk and
Gail Vittori, have worked to improve indoor air quality.
Outdoor ambient air quality standards come in two categories:
"criteria" or "conventional" (ozone, carbon monoxide, nitrogen
dioxide, sulfur dioxide, particulate matter, and lead),
and "toxic" pollution (acetaldehyde, benzene, 1,3-butadiene,
formaldehyde, and polycyclic organic matter).
Some of the pollutants, such as ozone, are sampled at different
intervals (1-hour and 8-hour) to catch spikes and general
trends. The overall goal is for airsheds to come into
"attainment", or compliance with the federal conventional
standards via a mix of programs under the rubric of a State
Implementation Plan. Failure to be in attainment can
jeopardize state receipt of federal funding, particularly
highway revenues. Interestingly, legally mapped airsheds
can ignore the very real long-range transport of air pollution
from outside the airshed, and make attainment of air quality
standards very difficult (please watch the video with NASA
remote sensing specialist,
(B) list policies relating to air quality;
air quality standards relate to health protection,
whether from acute effects, such as asthma attacks, or from
chronic disease, such as asbestosis, black lung, or cancer.
Health concerns have been raised about air emissions from
petrochemical plants (please listen to the reactions of the
Rev. Roy Malveaux). Health problems
stemming from utilities have also received attention
(please consider remarks from San Antonio organizer,
T.C. Calvert). Health concerns from waste
incineration have also been brought up (please see
Sue Pope, and Port Arthur wastewater technician,
air quality standards hinge on aesthetics, such as the Class I area
designation given to most national parks and wilderness areas,
with the goal of protecting visibility. This is a
particular concern in Big Bend National Park which has long
enjoyed spectacular visibility, even to 200-mile ranges.
Unfortunately for park visitors, and for astronomers at the
nearby McDonald Observatory, visibility has been declining due
to long-range transport from utility plants and other air
pollution sources. In her transcript,
Fran Sage discusses the visibility issue in west Texas.
rapidly evolving air quality policy concerns climate change.
There are deep worries that additions of carbon dioxide, methane
and other greenhouse gases are causing the climate to warm, with
consequences such as melting of ice caps and glaciers, rises in
sea level, increases in hurricane force, and shifting of drought
zones. While there is a scientific consensus on the
connection between man's carbon emissions and climate change,
there is still hesitancy in our industrial and political
leadership, as of this writing (see cartoonist
Sargent's humorous poke at the situation).
(C) identify sources and effects of air and noise pollution;
TexasLegacy.org narrators can act as guides for students to
understand the diverse, and non-obvious sources and effects of
air and noise pollution. Please see the text and links to
the right to get started.
Sources of noise pollution can be as small and yet as pervasive
and persistent as a alarm clock, TV
blaring, or dog barking (please think about naturalist
John Ahrns' remarks). While these little beeps,
murmurs, and barks can be irritating, the effects from a
large neighboring power plant can be distracting to the
point of disrupting people's study, work and rest (please
consider the views of health advocate
Sylvia Herrera in her talk about the Holly Power Plant
in east Austin).
Sources of air pollution are seldom the belching smoke
from a towering stack anymore - increasingly the pollution is
invisible, and may come via leaks from a thousand small valves
and vents (please consider
George Smith's comments). The effects of air
pollution are understood to be large, whether chronic asthma
or early death from cancers (please see the video of Channelview
LaNell Anderson lamenting the many estimated deaths due
to air pollution). However, the toxicological
research has frequently not been done to isolate the effects
from particular industrial chemicals (please watch the segment
with Galveston toxicologist
Marvin Legator). Also, the epidemiological data
are also sketchy (please look at the visit with Houston
(D) list air pollution control programs.
pollution comes from many sources, with the mix among the
sources varying among communities and airsheds.
Please consider the many TexasLegacy.org narrators in their
local reactions to their air pollution problems and answers.
Air pollution emissions are typically divided into two kinds
of sources: mobile and stationary, or, in
other words, vehicles and industrial plants.
In mobile sources, work has focused on improving fuels
(removing lead from gasoline and sulfur from diesel), increasing
fuel efficiency (through CAFE standards), and installing
catalytic converters (to reduce carbon monoxide, volatile
organic compounds and nitrogen oxides). As editorial
cartoonist Ben Sargent points out, improving
efficiency and reducing vehicle use through
transit are of course major goals as well in lowering
In stationary or industrial sources, efforts have
concentrated on market-based trading programs to reduce sulfur
and nitrogen emissions that lead to acid rain, New Source Review
permits for new facilities, and operating permits for existing
facilities. In most parts of the state, mobile sources tend to
dominate the pollution mix, but in industrial areas such as
Houston, stationary sources are the leading factor.
The trading in emissions has raised concerns that
pollution is not uniformly being regulated among all
communities, but rather is being emitted according to the age of
the facility and the cost of pollution reductions. please
watch the segment with Houston pollution inspector
Brandt Mannchen, as he discusses the difference between
this market system and the more traditional
"command-and-control" regulation, where emissions are set on the
basis of industry technology and health effects.
Pollution emissions from stationary sources are regulated under
self-reported data, and through periodic inspections.
Please see the excerpt from the interview with Houston advocate
George Smith, where he explains how the self-reporting
system can break down.
Regulation of air pollution from industrial accidents,
commonly called "upsets", has also lagged.
Industrial facilities sometimes have problems in their process
or pollution control equipment, and have to release poorly
treated emissions. Pasadena petrochemical worker,
Steve Smith recalls a major explosion and fire at a
Houston Ship Channel plant, killing 22 people, and releasing
tons of unregulated emission.
Rev. Roy Malveaux recalls another set of explosions in
Corpus Christi's Refinery Row.
Air pollution control is a very costly business, whether in
fitting out a new automobile model with suitable equipment, or
in installing new scrubbers on an industrial plant. As a
result, air pollution control programs tend to be very
political, whether at the grassroots level (see activist
T.C. Calvert's comments) or in the boardrooms of
agencies and corporations (see former EPA administrator
Adlene Harrison's clip).