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Environmental e-Newsletters | Environmental Violation Handbook
e-Newsletter - The City has unveiled - for the first time - an environmental e-newsletter, the Environmental Standard . This newsletter provides information about relevant projects involving the City and the community. Its purpose is to:
- Inform the citizens of Houston , of what the City is actively doing to improve environmental quality.
- Advise citizens of what they can do to help improve the quality of the environment.
- Provide an understanding of the environmental organization within the City.
- Create a bridge of communication between the City and the citizens.
The e-Newsletter has a current readership over 2,300 recipients. Current and past issues can be found on the City's web site at www.greenhoustontx.gov.
In addition, the City has embarked on a program to spotlight businesses in the community that are making significant strides in environmental best practices. The City's Environmental Spotlight features a new business every six to eight weeks. Current and past recipients can be found on the City's web site at www.greenhoustontx.gov/spotlight.html.
Environmental Violation Handbook - The City of Houston is the first city in the nation to create and publish an environmental violation handbook. This handbook captures the 30 most common environmental violations, from illegal dumping into storm drains, and sewer overflow, to industrial waste, chemical spills, and smoking vehicles. The handbook provides detailed information on what to look for and how to properly report the violation.
The Environmental Violation Handbook has two versions, the hardcopy, published version that is given to all City Inspectors, and an online version that is available to the public on the City's web site.
The City Inspector version is given to all City Inspectors; the idea behind this handbook is that while inspectors are out doing routine inspections, they can become aware of common environmental violation and know what to look for and how and whom to report any problems they encounter. This way a health inspector doing a routine restaurant inspection may notice, after having viewed the images of the handbook, that a truck has just tracked mud onto the street and know that doing so is a violation. They can find that violation in the handbook and can properly report what was done to the proper people.
In the same way, the online version of the Environmental Violation Handbook will be an educational tool, to teach citizens what to watch for and how to report any violations that they see. By allowing all City Inspectors and citizens at-large to help spot, and report common environmental violations, the City hopes to see reductions in these types of violations, which would cut costs the City incurs as a result of these actions, and improve the community as a whole.
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