Lone Star Legal Aid Empowers Texans with Updated Pollution Reporting Tool: Easy Reporting Enabled Through Tech for Environmental Justice

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Earth Day – Tuesday, April 16, 2024

Houston, TX – The Equitable Development Initiative’s Environmental Justice Team at Lone Star Legal Aid (LSLA) is proud to unveil their newly updated Community Pollution Reporting Tool, which enables Texans in 72 counties in the eastern and Gulf Coast regions of Texas to easily report any form of pollution to authorities. The original version of the powerful online tool was developed by LSLA with students from Georgetown Law School in 2020; and now, on Earth Day 2024, the tool is updated to reflect recent legislative changes and include new features that further streamline the pollution-reporting process.

With an absence of zoning in the fourth largest city in America, many residents of Houston live on the fence line of petrochemical companies, metal recyclers, concrete batch plants, waste facilities, and contaminated sites. The adverse environmental impact on these locations regularly goes unreported despite the negative health effects on the communities. As a result, people in Houston and beyond need a way to report and track pollution in their neighborhoods. 

Once a report is filed with the Community Pollution Reporter, the LSLA Environmental Justice Team will follow-up with the reporter and LSLA’s community partners in the area – and engage with local, state, and national authorities based on the report.

The updated tool has been created in partnership with technology provider, Neota Logic and LSLA intern, Ari Fletcher-Bai of the University of Texas School of Law who leveraged the innovative work done on the original tool by the Georgetown Law students in 2020.  The reports received through the updated tool will help LSLA’s Environmental Justice Team and Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ) take action against both pollution and suspected polluters. 

Through the tool, individuals can report:

• Air pollution
• Odors
• Water pollution
• Drinking water issues
• Land pollution
• Land damage
• Property damage
• Oil or gas issues
• Toxic spills
• Concrete production issues
• Health hazards

The tool now features an AI-generated avatar named Tim who welcomes users and guides them on making a report, which can be done in a few minutes. The user can upload pictures and other media to help explain their concerns about the pollution. Originally available in only Spanish and English, the tool is now available in more than 100 languages and is available online and on mobile platforms. 

The tool can be used anonymously; but to ensure that there is a point of contact for follow-up, LSLA encourages users to include their contact information. Each person making a report gets a copy of the report that includes information on how they can follow-up on their report if desired. 

“For Earth Day, we are excited to launch our updated tool so the environmental justice communities we work with have an accessible and easy way to report the pollution they are seeing in our 72-county service area in Texas,” said LSLA Litigation Director, Amy Dinn, who manages the firm’s Environmental Justice Team. “We encourage impacted residents to share this tool with their neighbors and to report what they are seeing or smelling so we can engage directly with regulatory authorities to let them know about these concerns. The reporter enables us to amplify community voices.” added Dinn.

The Community Pollution Reporter Tool can be accessed via the LSLA website here.

To celebrate and launch the updated tool, The Lone Star Legal Aid Environmental Justice Team (LSLA EJ Team) will be in attendance at the Green Mountain Energy Earth Day on Saturday, April 20 from 12:00 PM to 5:00 PM. The free event will be held at Discovery Green in partnership with Citizens’ Environmental Coalition and Houston Public Works Water Works Festival. 

The LSLA EJ Team focuses on the right to equitable distribution of environmental benefits and burdens, and the right to equal protection from environmental hazards. The Team works directly with community groups and individuals living in socially vulnerable areas full of environmental injustices, like an abundance of nuisance facilities and environmental hazards near homes, schools, and churches. For more information, you can contact 713-652-0077 ext 8108.

Lone Star Legal Aid (LSLA) is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit law firm focused on advocacy for low-income and underserved populations by providing free legal education, advice, and representation. LSLA serves millions of people at 125% of federal poverty guidelines, who live in 72 counties in the eastern and Gulf Coast regions of Texas, and 4 counties in Southwest Arkansas. LSLA focuses its resources on maintaining, enhancing, and protecting income and economic stability; preserving housing; improving outcomes for children; establishing and sustaining family safety, stability, health, and wellbeing; and assisting populations with special vulnerabilities, like those with disabilities, the aging, survivors of crime and disasters, the unemployed and underemployed, the unhoused, those with limited English language skills, and the LGBTQIA+ community. To learn more about Lone Star Legal Aid, visit our website at www.LoneStarLegal.org.

Media Contact for Lone Star Legal Aid: media@lonestarlegal.org 

Media Contact for Technology Provider, Neota Logic: aldi@neotalogic.com