After Earth Day, TEXAS amid "Most Toxic, Litter-Polluted" States

by STEVE SPACEK @litterscorecard

WASHINGTON, D.C. April 25, 2018 -- Texas-- with its 30 million residents--takes top honors as the most populous, "most polluted," of ten American state governments. States where littering and dumping is visible and widespread, and where record-high fatalities are attributed to related vehicle accidents. This information comes as Texans and Americans alike, after celebrating Earth Day last weekend, "stay concerned about unmitigated toxic pollution, " said Steve Spacek, director of the American State Litter Scorecard and a Texas native.

Louisiana, New Jersey, Oklahoma, Kansas, Nevada, Pennsylvania, Michigan, Georgia and South Carolina make for the remaining nine of the 10 "most litter polluted" selection, he said.

[From 2011 to 2014, Texas was deemed America's largest-populated, Scorecard "worst" government].

The "most litter polluted" rankings are based on evaluated indicators from government, nonprofit and private sources, including observations by citizens, deaths from collisions with rubbish, "profiled litterer" population percentages, effectiveness of litter abatement spending, public entity corruption rankings and discernible maintenance by employees, contractors and volunteers.

Mr. Spacek said recent Gallup Polls found a majority of Texans and Americans have a "great deal of concern" about toxic pollutants lingering at water and landed areas managed by states and localities. "Since the 1970s, Gallup's noted most respondents believe the public sector's not worked hard enough to protect the environment." Spacek added, "But, inappropriate littering by 1000's of Texans create hurtful conditions statewide. Insects and diseases breed, causing injuries to animals and humans. Furthermore, Texas has more “profiled teenage litterers” than any state, part of an age 16-25 group, from findings in national litter studies, to be most prone, willing to throw wastes onto sidewalks, park lands, beaches, roadways.”

In fiscal year 2016, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration recorded 111 Texans were killed by litter-attributed crash accidents—more than any state. "For decades to the present, Texas remains a national leader for total deaths due to these accidents. Texans are dying day and night, under wet or dry conditions, from crashes with ordinary litter, tire scraps, tree limbs, objects from unsecured loads appearing out of nowhere," he said.

Though required by laws and ordinances, quite a few maintenance personnel, contractors and volunteers for the Texas Department of Transportation and local governments “appear to act a bit too lazy, end up doing terrible cleanup jobs. Reasonable task accountability and true oversight from the Legislature regarding those matters seems questionable," said Spacek.

Furthermore, “In 2015, Texas got an overall grade of 'D-' from the Center for Public Integrity, which measured the public performances of the Governor, the Legislature, and state Agencies." Added Spacek, quoting from the Center's report, "...the state’s national reputation is a place where — at least in the eyes of watchdog groups — lip service for public ethics is trumped by actual final results...Texans continue to be more suspicious than ever about their state's governance."

[Author's Note: Portions of this Patch.com story came from a related, April 18, 2018 press release from Newswire.com that appeared in newspapers and televised newscasts nationwide. Follow the Scorecard on TWITTER; AmericanStateLitterScorecard FACEBOOK page; litterscorecard.com website]