{"id":601345,"date":"2026-04-23T09:53:13","date_gmt":"2026-04-23T09:53:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/601345\/"},"modified":"2026-04-23T09:53:13","modified_gmt":"2026-04-23T09:53:13","slug":"south-texas-air-pollution-is-worsening-report-finds","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/601345\/","title":{"rendered":"South Texas air pollution is worsening, report finds"},"content":{"rendered":"

At the same time that several global, multi-billion-dollar corporations are turning their attention to industrial development in deep South Texas<\/a>, a new report indicates that air pollution in the region is already high and getting worse.<\/p>\n

According to the American Lung Association\u2019s 27th annual \u201cState of Air\u201d report<\/a>, Texas is the state with the overall worst air quality in the country. And within the Lone Star State, the\u00a0Brownsville and McAllen metropolitan areas are among the most polluted places of all. Both cities ranked among the top 25 most polluted places to live in the country after a drastic worsening of air pollution levels over the last year.<\/p>\n

Brownsville is now ranked as the second-worst city in the country<\/a> for year-round particle pollution and fourth-worst in terms of short-term particle pollution, while Hidalgo County came in at No. 24 for year-round particle pollution and McAllen at No. 10 for short-term particle pollution.<\/p>\n

\u201cBrownsville-Harlingen-Raymondville, Texas reported a new worst-ever value, falling from 16th worst in last year\u2019s report to second worst in the nation,\u201d for year-round particle pollution, according to the ALS report.<\/p>\n

Several factors can affect a region\u2019s air quality \u2014 some for a longer period of time than others.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnnual particle pollution levels are most often highest in places that are subject to multiple sources of emissions all year long, such as from highways, oil and gas extraction, power generation and industry,\u201d the report reads.<\/p>\n

Over the last year, both\u00a0Brownsville and McAllen\u2019s short-term particle pollution worsened so much that the association gave the Valley\u2019s two most populous regions failing grades. Just last year, the ALS had given Brownsville a \u201cD\u201d grade and McAllen a \u201cC\u201d grade. Both now have \u201cF\u201d grades, the worst since the organization started ranking air quality.<\/p>\n

The Valley\u2019s worsening air quality comes as several tech and industrial companies have announced they plan to invest tens of billions of dollars in the region. The majority of the Valley\u2019s industrialization is happening at the Port of\u00a0Brownsville, which lies just a few miles south of popular tourist destination South Padre Island.<\/p>\n

Among the companies investing are\u00a0Rio Grande\u00a0LNG<\/a> and Texas LNG<\/a> \u2014 two Houston-based energy companies that are building massive liquefied natural gas export terminals at the port. And earlier this year, President Donald Trump announced that America First Refining will build the first oil refinery to be built in the last 50 years at Brownsville.<\/p>\n

Other projects include $1 billion in new construction by\u00a0SpaceX at Starbase.There, Elon Musk\u2019s company is rapidly building a new launchpad and a megafactory\u00a0called \u201cGigaBay<\/a>\u201d that the CEO promises will be capable of manufacturing as many as a thousand Starships per year.<\/p>\n

But the rapid industrialization of a region whose economy over the last century has been based on agriculture and the service industry has many locals worried. Locals have flooded county and city council meetings to protest the heavy industry operators that are moving into the region. In the latest example of the pushback, the South Texas Environmental Justice Network staged a demonstration at\u00a0Starbase<\/a> on Wednesday as investors toured SpaceX\u2019s headquarters ahead of an initial public offering, or IPO, that\u2019s expected later this year. The protest happened the same day that the ALS issued its air-pollution report.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"At the same time that several global, multi-billion-dollar corporations are turning their attention to industrial development in deep…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":601346,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[23,261567,78758,13569,3,21,19,22,20,25,24],"class_list":{"0":"post-601345","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-united-states","8":"tag-america","9":"tag-mysacoast","10":"tag-mysasotx","11":"tag-mysastaff","12":"tag-news","13":"tag-united-states","14":"tag-united-states-of-america","15":"tag-unitedstates","16":"tag-unitedstatesofamerica","17":"tag-us","18":"tag-usa"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/601345","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=601345"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/601345\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/601346"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=601345"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=601345"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=601345"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}