Texas

Waste Expansion

Texas grew with the west after gigantic oil strikes in the southwest and California at the turn of the 20th century led prospectors to vast oil fields in Texas. The city of Houston in east Texas grew steadily from its founding in 1836, primarily as a railroad hub for exporting cotton. Growth accelerated rapidly after prospectors discovered a rich deposit of oil under Spindletop Hill in Beaumont. They quickly developed the Spindletop oil field, triggering a wave of speculation, drilling, and investment in Texas. The energy industry has dominated the state's economy and environment ever since; oil production averaged 3 million barrels per day at its peak in 1972. The transportation of millions of barrels of petroleum through the state's wells and refineries has produced significant air and water pollution problems, as well as vast amounts of wealth. As early as the 1920s, oil spills into the state's waterways attracted the attention of other industries that relied on water transportation, and, ultimately, the attention of the U.S. government. The U.S. Bureau of Mines conducted a survey in 1922 and 1923 that found the waters near Port Arthur and Houston to be the most polluted with oil of any waterway in the United States. While oil produced significant growth throughout the state in the early 20th century, the state's economy grew during World War II as federal funding of military bases and infrastructure sparked industrial investments that subsequently included steel fabrication and natural gas production.

Major Cities

The start of the oil boom in 1901 had immediate effects on the state's largest city. Houston's population doubled between 1900 and 1910, reaching [Page 904]78,800, with one-third of the residents African Americans. Both the population and geographical size of the city continued to grow over the next century, and by 2010, the city was the most populous in Texas, with more than 2 million people living on over 600 square miles. Tthis development was largely unplanned, and Houston is the largest city in the United States that did not adopt zoning practices. In the post–World War II era, the sprawling city had half the population density of Los Angeles. The metropolitan area, incorporating the surrounding suburban sprawl, hosted almost six million people, making the region the second most populated region in the state.

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