Houston Democrats

RESOLUTION REGARDING STANDARDS FOR SAFER AIR TO BREATHE

WHEREAS Harris County, Texas is the third largest populated county in the United States with about 2 million voters and 3 million residents;

• Harris County has 22% of the roll call in seven (7) of the 31 Senate Districts in Texas; the counties in these seven districts include Brazoria, Chambers, Fort Bend, Galveston, Harris, Jefferson, Montgomery, and Orange. These counties politically define the "Houston Region".
• The City of Houston, Harris County, Texas is the 4th largest populated city in the United States; and is to home of the oil and gas industry, NASA and the largest medical complex in the world;
• Vehicles (44%) and industry (55%) are the leading sources of air pollution and toxic emissions in the Houston Region;
• General property tax revenue is the primary source of funds for public institutions and agencies, such as city and county pollution control and the regional offices of the Texas Commission of Environmental Quality, Texas Department of Health, and Department of Transportation;
• Harris County and the Houston Region are consistently out of compliance with Ambient Air Quality Standards for major criteria air pollutants. These pollutants are acknowledged by both the scientific community and the city, county, and state Departments of Health and Texas Commission of Environmental Quality as exacerbating both respiratory and cardiovascular related disease in the human population.

BE IT THEREFORE RESOLVED THAT the Harris County Democratic Party supports:

• Appropriate science-based air quality standards for the Houston Region that will result in safer indoor and outdoor air for all humans to breathe.
• Environmental assessments that include protection for human health based on appropriate health and life science peer reviewed studies.
• An environmental economic formula that includes an environmental assessment that will protect both public revenues and public health for publicly funded transportation and development projects.

RESOLUTION REGARDING REGIONAL WATER MANAGEMENT PLAN

WHEREAS Harris County, Texas is the third largest populated county in the

United States with about 2 million voters and 3 million residents;

• Harris County has 22% of the roll call in seven (7) of the 31 Senate Districts in Texas; the counties in these districts include Brazoria, Chambers, Fort Bend, Galveston, Harris, Jefferson, Montgomery, and Orange. These counties politically define the 'Houston Region';
• The City of Houston is the 4th largest city in the United States; it is the home to the petrochemical industry, NASA, more than 16 institutions of higher learning and the largest medical complex in the world;
• The surface and near-surface groundwater in the Houston Region are polluted with urban and industrial chemicals and waste;
• The Houston Region is subject to natural geological ground subsidence and land subsidence increases with groundwater production;
• Special Subsidence Districts have been created to manage groundwater production within Harris, Galveston and Fort Bend counties;
• Regional water and transportation plans have been created for Harris and adjacent counties within the Houston Region.

BE IT THEREFORE RESOLVED THAT the Harris County Democratic Party supports:

• Good management of the Region H Water Plan and the Regional Transportation Plan to increase the quality of all human life and reuse and recycle limited water resources.
• Appropriate and high human life and health science-based standards for regulating both surface and underground drinking water supplies.
• Green-space for parks, recreation, floodwater management, and wetlands protection within the region.
• An environmental economic formula for water and transportation projects funded with public revenue, that includes an environmental assessment to protect public health as well as public funds.