George Smith

Region: Coastal Plain

Topics: Air Pollution, Non-Profit, Sierra

George Smith is a retired dentist, and a long-time volunteer advocate for improved air quality in Houston and throughout Texas. In the non-profit realm, he has served as air quality chair for the Sierra Club's Lone Star Chapter since 1980, air quality chair of the national Sierra Club in the early 1990s, and currently acts as vice president of the Galveston-Houston Association for Smog Prevention. Regionally, he has worked as chair of the Regional Air Quality Planning Committee of the Houston-Galveston Area Council, and served on the environmental advisory committees of Houston Mayors Brown, Lanier and Whitmire. On the state level, he was appointed by Governor White to the Task Force on Hazardous Waste and the Clean Air Study Committee. In these various capacities, he has opposed misguided air pollution permits (helping stop the notorious Mitsubishi copper smelter facility slated for the Galveston Bay area), worked to improve ozone reduction efforts, and lobbied to reduce toxic emissions such as benzene.

Interviewed

October 21, 2003
Houston, Texas
Reels 2275 and 2276