Severe Thunderstorm Watch

from THU 5:46 PM CDT until FRI 12:00 AM CDT, Travis County, Williamson County, Lee County, Bastrop County, Caldwell County, Hays County, Blanco County, Gillespie County, Burnet County, Llano County, Bastrop County, Blanco County, Burnet County, Caldwell County, Gillespie County, Hays County, Lee County, Llano County, Travis County, Williamson County

Humidity and wildfires in Mexico are bringing hazy skies across the state of Texas.

Texas skies are hazy this week thanks to the tedious combination of humidity and smoke drifting from various fires.

Hazy conditions and poor air quality will remain steady through the weekend, according to data from AirNow.gov, the nation’s official website for air quality monitoring.

Here’s what we know.

Where is smoke coming from in Texas?

This week, active wildfires have been reported in California, New Orleans, Mexico, and Central America. Strong winds are carrying remnants of smoke to various parts of Texas, including Austin, Dallas-Fort Worth, Houston, San Antonio and Waco.

According to the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality, residual smoke from seasonal burnings and industrial activities is the primary contributing factor to the haze in Texas.

“Elsewhere, light to moderate winds combined with very high relative humidity east of the dryline has kept elevated fine particulate matter concentrations widespread and are expected to be sustained,” according to the daily statement on the TCEQ website Wednesday.

Air Quality Index: Map of current conditions across Texas

Much of the eastern portion of the state will experience moderate to unhealthy air quality conditions through Saturday as a cold front continues to bring residual smoke and high relative humidity. According to AirNow, these are the forecasted AQIs through Saturday.

• Amarillo: Good through the weekend
• Austin: Unhealthy for sensitive groups, moderate beginning Friday
• Corpus: Unhealthy for all, moderate beginning Friday
• Dallas-Fort Worth: Moderate through the weekend
• El Paso: Moderate through the weekend
• Houston: Unhealthy for sensitive groups, moderate on Saturday
• Lubbock: Good through the weekend
• Midland-Odessa: Good through the weekend
• San Antonio: Moderate
• Waco: Unsafe for sensitive groups, moderate and good on Friday and Saturday

A Texas energy company will pay a $265,000 fine to settle charges that it subjected Black and Hispanic field mechanics to harassment.

The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) announced last week that Liberty Energy, Inc. doing business as Liberty Oilfield Services, LLC, will settle a race and national origin discrimination lawsuit brought on behalf of three mechanics.

According to the EEOC lawsuit, a Black field mechanic and two Hispanic co-workers at Liberty Energy’s Odessa, Texas location were subjected to a hostile environment and referred to in derogatory terms, including use of the N-word and other slurs such as “beaner” and “wetback.”

Liberty Energy is an oilfield service firm offering technologies to onshore oil and natural gas exploration across North America.

The employees alleged that they made reports to supervisors, management, and human resources about the discriminatory treatment, but no effective corrective or remedial action was taken by the company.

The EEOC’s suit charged that after making his report, the Black mechanic was forced by management to perform undesirable work tasks and was isolated by his peers. With no meaningful action by company management to change the workplace atmosphere and the discriminatory assignments that followed his complaint, he was ultimately left no alternative but to resign.

The alleged conduct violated Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which prohibits discrimination based on race and national origin. The EEOC filed suit, Civil Action No. 7:23-cv-00100, in U.S. District Court for the Western District of Texas, Midland-Odessa Division, after first attempting to reach a pre-litigation settlement through its conciliation process.

Under the two-year consent decree resolving the suit, in addition to monetary relief for the employees, Liberty Energy will adopt and distribute a policy for all human resources and management personnel to effectively respond to reports to discrimination; post a notice in the workplace informing employees of the settlement; adopt and develop a 1-800 hotline for reporting acts of discrimination and/or harassment; and provide specialized training to employees on the federal laws that prohibit employment discrimination, including Title VII.

Source: EEOC

Topics
Lawsuits
Texas