Click here to view the October 2009 digital edition.… more

It doesn’t stink.

That’s the first thing that strikes visitors to Dallas’ 996-acre McCommas Bluff Landfill, a former gravel pit lying just south of the Trinity River near the intersection of I-45 and I-20. It would seem that a place that takes in nearly 5,000 tons of garbage a day … more

• On the east end of the dump stands a tower that stores sludgy recycled trash water containing bacteria, fungi, and other microorganisms or microbes.

• The yucky mix flows from the storage tower into horizontal perforated pipes that line the landfill.

• The liquid is then injected into the … more

About 60,000 of Dallas’ 240,000 households are currently putting out their recycling blue bins once a week instead of once every two weeks. Right now, this recycling schedule applies to single-family homes north of the Trinity River and west of Central Expressway.

Another 40,000 will begin once-a-week recycling in February … more

By and large, the city receives a passing mark in terms of its strides toward protecting the environment, says Jeff Jacoby, Dallas’ staff director for the Texas Campaign for the Environment, a grassroots advocacy group. Here are some of his praises and critiques:

Jacoby says he is “disappointed” the city … more

2 million tons
of waste taken in annually at the landfill

800,000 annual tons
of waste from single-family residents

6,000 tons of waste
left at the landfill each day on average

7 pounds of waste
thrown away daily by the average person in Texas (The national average is 5.4 pounds. … more

Ron Smith has seen a lot in his 10 years of working with landfills, including his two years here at McCommas Bluff. Like the time one of his crews found a dead body.

“We did have a deceased gentleman out here about a year and a half ago, and we … more

The Disney Streets Halloween parade is a highly orchestrated event, the result of months of planning. The impetus behind it, however, was not nearly as thought out. 

“The idea for the parade was conceived over margaritas,” says Dawn Candee, who helped launch the parade 23 years ago. “A group of … more

Jim Potter still remembers when Dougherty’s Pharmacy was a hangout spot for Preston Hollow teenagers. “I was a student at Hillcrest when Dougherty’s opened here in the ‘60s. Back then, there was a movie theater in the shopping center, so we’d all hang out afterward.” Today, Potter is the vice … more

This Month, Attend an event…
…at The Episcopal Church of Transfiguration, 14115 Hillcrest, on Friday, Oct. 16, at 7 p.m. That’s when you can hear Oscar-winning actor Louis Gossett speak about his recent work as an anti-racism activist. He’ll be at the church as part of the Vision Forum, a … more