Pesky plastic pellets have infested rivers and beaches along the Gulf Coast. They’re called nurdles, and while they’ve bedeviled environmental organizations for years, there are now fears that they could cause serious economic harm as well.
The beads are used to make most plastic products. They’re made as part of a preproduction process at several facilities around the state and often end up escaping the factories that produce them, entering the environment. That puts more plastic in Texas waterways and in the animals that inhabit or depend them.
Recently, almost a dozen organizations – some of them activists, and others representing Gulf Coast tourism and fishing industries – have written a letter to Gov. Greg Abbot asking for his help on the matter. This time, it’s not just about the pollution; their appeal emphasizes the monetary impact Nurdles could have if the contamination continues.
Chris Gray is the Gulf Coast Reporter for Chron.com. He sat down with the Standard to talk about nurdles, where they come from, and what activists say could happen if they continue to proliferate. Listen to the interview above or read the transcript below.
This interview has been edited lightly for clarity:
Texas Standard: So first off, tell us, how are all these nurdles getting into the water and onto Texas beaches?
Chris Gray: Well, they come from about three dozen facilities – three of which are on Galveston Bay, which is sort of how the story came to my attention – but they really are all over Texas, and have even apparently started washing up on Mexican beaches as well.
What happens is they get into the wastewater as they’re being created. And these plastic pellets, later used to make more refined plastic products like bottles and such, they get into the water if they fall off of trucks and trains, and then they wind up on the beaches.
Apparently one organization, the Turtle Island Restoration Network, has collected over 16,000 [pellets] just doing their own beach patrols with their volunteers.
You mentioned in your article that these beads have been troubling environmentalists for years. How long has this been a problem for Texas?
Plastic pollution has been around for decades. I don’t know if it’s become this acute until the last few years, maybe.
I guess it just depends on how carefully these plants are watching, how they’re getting rid of these nurdles and how they’re loading them onto their transportation methods.
Now, you’ve reported that nearly a dozen groups have written a letter to the governor asking for his help with the nurdle issue. Tell us a little bit about what their appeal is.
What has really changed about the conversation around this thing is that these tourism officials are now recognizing that it’s just bad for business to have all these plastic pellets washing up on the beach and come to the media’s attention, and reflecting negatively on what it’s like down here. It could potentially turn people away from wanting to come visit down here.
Yeah, so environmental and economic. What if the issue goes unresolved? How much damage could nurdles do?
You talked about tourism, but what about the fisheries, the animals that ingest them, beach health and water health? Tell us a little bit about that.
I mean, these little pellets can really wreak havoc in the food chain down here. They’ll get into the fish, and then into people who eat the fish.
It also can hinder growth in fish and their ability to reproduce, which in turn would have a negative impact on both the commercial and recreational fishing industries.
Any sense on the dollar value that is being lost, or could be lost, as this problem goes unresolved?
The numbers that I’ve seen show that the outdoor recreation industry in Texas – which I guess is fishing and that sort of thing, but also coming to the beach – supports 300,000 jobs, is responsible for $14 billion in salaries, and $31 billion in added value to the state’s economy.
I don’t think, at least not that I’ve seen, that anyone has tracked how much has actually been lost, or is being lost from plastic pollution, but if you take that as kind of the high-water mark, just imagine how much could be affected if it’s not curbed somehow.
Yes, that’s a lot of money at stake. Well, finally, is the governor, the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality, or any other state agency likely to step in?
I have not seen any kind of response from the governor’s office to this letter. I believe the TCEQ is supposed to publish an updated surface water quality standards sometime next year.
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