CattleProduction
Potential Pollution Risks in Texas
Most of the cattle on feed are located in Texas, as previously depicted in the maps displaying the 2012 USDA Cattle Census Information. Since Texas has a relatively large number of cattle, it is worth further investigating this region to assess if Texas has effectively implemented monitoring sites in places that could be pollution hotspots due to factory farm production.
Air Toxic Monitoring Sites
Since factory farms may raditate harmful pollutants into the air, it is important to have monitoring sites in close proximity to these potential pollutors. Below is a map of Texas displaying head of cattle per county, in addition to the air toxin monitoring sites. The highest number of cattle are present in the upper left hand part of Texas, including the counties of Dallam, Hartley, Deaf Smith, Parmer, and Castro. This northwest area has a high concentration of cattle, but no monitoring site which puts residents at risk for ingesting harmful pollutants.
Environmental injustices and environmental racism occur throughout the country. Environmental injustices occur when people of low income are marginalized and do not have the same resources of wealthier communties.
This map is a map of mean household income per county, in addition to the amount of head of cattle per county. The income is displayed in hotspot clusters and the lower income spots are visualized as brown and the higher income spots are visualized as blue.
Environmental Justice
Conclusions
Across the entire map however, no clear trends between cattle number and mean household income can be deduced. Throughout the entire region of Texas the cattle remains about the same, with certain counties exhibiting higher values than others. Overall these trends should continue to be investigated over the coming years in order to ensure that lower income neighborhoods are not marginalized as the health of each and every community in Texas is important to the success of the state.
Texas should consider placing a monitoring site in these locations with high cattle populations in order to ensure local residents are not ingesting harmful pollutants from these farms. It would be very difficult for the state to accurately assess the air quality in the northwest corner of the state as there are no monitoring sites in that region. In order to prevent health problems in the northwest corner of the state, Texas should implement an air quality monitoring site.
Conclusions
These maps are increasingly important for states to use because they help county officials geographically visualize locations that are potential hotspots for pollution. Once these hotspots are identified, the monitoring sites for different types of pollution (including air toxins) can be mapped to help officials accurately asses thier infrastructure. These maps can then identify areas that could benefit greatly from new monitoring sites as well as other improvements that could help to better protect communties and improve the overall health of the state.