Editing Sierra Blanca, Texas (section)

==Economy==
The cost of living in Sierra Blanca is about 20% less than the US average. The CDP has a home ownership rate of 49.5%. The median home is valued at $54,600 with a 1.94% annual appreciation. <!-- way out of date As of December 2013, the unemployment rate was 5.4%. -->

Starting in 1992, a few miles from Sierra Blanca was the location of a sludge dump that received 250 tons of treated sewage each day by train from New York City. The practice was discontinued in 2001, after local complaints about odor and negative impact on health.<ref>{{cite news| title = New York's Sewage Was a Texas Town's Gold| work = The New York Times| date = 2007-07-27| access-date = 2009-03-18| url = https://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9905E7DF153DF934A15754C0A9679C8B63&sec=&spon=&pagewanted=all| first=Jim | last=Yardley}}</ref><ref>"Sierra Blanca, the Nation's Largest Sewage Dump", ''Toxic Texas'', http://www.txpeer.org/toxictour/merco.html, retrieved August 7, 2017.</ref>

In the late 1990s, the Texas Low-Level Radioactive Waste Disposal Authority proposed a nuclear waste site near Sierra Blanca.<ref>{{cite web|title=Texas Low-Level Radioactive Waste Disposal Authority: An Inventory of Low-Level Radioactive Waste Disposal Authority Records at the Texas State Archives, 1917, 1920, 1933-1999, undated, bulk 1995-1998 |url=https://legacy.lib.utexas.edu/taro/tslac/40135/tsl-40135.html |website=Texas State Library Archives |access-date=25 February 2020}}</ref> The waste site was thought to bring an economic boost to the town. This proposal was eventually declined, citing concerns about the site being in the most seismically active region of Texas.<ref>{{cite news|title=Texas Agency Denies Permit For Waste Site|date=September 2, 1998|newspaper=[[New York Times]]|access-date=February 24, 2020|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1998/09/02/us/for-some-texas-town-is-too-popular-as-waste-disposal-site.html}}</ref>

Press reports indicated that in 2013, the town supported three restaurants and a motel. No grocery store is in the community.<ref name="W Shulz 2013">"Minor drug busts at border checkpoint breaking Texas county's budget", by Andrew Becker and G. W. Shulz, 19 June 2013, Center for Investigative Reporting</ref>