Houston may one day become a world-class city, but I think I am going to give up waiting for miracles.
The presence of human feces in Houston’s waterways is a serious concern because it carries viruses, bacteria, and microorganisms that can make people sick. Many of Houston’s bayous are unsafe for swimming due to contamination from sewage spills.
In the Settegast neighborhood in northeast Houston, raw sewage problems are common and costly to fix.
According to Bayou City Waterkeepers, neighborhoods such as Denver Harbor, Sunnyside, and Southpark are among the worst affected by raw sewage releases at homes and businesses. In 2024, the group tracked 1,147 sewage spill incidents on private property, with a disproportionate number occurring in low-income areas.
Well, don’t want to give Whitmire all the credit; the sewage problem and many others go back at least to when his sister-in-law, Kathy Whitmire, was mayor. That is going back over fifty years.
The quote below is from Texas Monthly, 1980.
This summer was the worst time of Marge Henson’s life. All the basics of city life that one takes for granted everywhere but Houston—water in the pipes, garbage pickup twice a week, buses and police if you need them—could no longer be relied upon. No amount of puffery about the city’s booming economy and phenomenal growth could compensate for the paralysis of Houston city government that was becoming the dominant factor in her life.
… That night she attended a neighborhood meeting called to consider hiring a private security service, since average police response time outside Loop 610, even for emergencies, is upwards of half an hour. Back home, she put out the trash, fully expecting to bring it in again the next day when garbagemen failed to show up for the fourth time in a row. Her last act before turning off the lights was to set the alarm for 1 a.m. and the next day’s watering.
… •Sewage. The City of Houston is the worst polluter in town, but it nevertheless refused to spend money on new sewage treatment facilities until the feds effectively barred further toilet connections in the older part of town. The new plant won’t be ready for a year or more; in the meantime, the city requires anyone who wants to put in a toilet to compensate by promising not to develop a vacant lot elsewhere. The effect has been to create a flourishing “white market” in toilets, with developers amassing and trading potential disconnects—a game beyond the means of ordinary citizens.