![TXEnvironQualBuil](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/2c/TXEnvironQualBuil.JPG)
The Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ) is the environmental
agency
Agency may refer to:
Organizations
* Institution, governmental or others
** Advertising agency or marketing agency, a service business dedicated to creating, planning and handling advertising for its clients
** Employment agency, a business that ...
for the state of
Texas
Texas (, ; Spanish language, Spanish: ''Texas'', ''Tejas'') is a state in the South Central United States, South Central region of the United States. At 268,596 square miles (695,662 km2), and with more than 29.1 million residents in 2 ...
. The commission's headquarters are located at 12100 Park 35 Circle in
Austin
Austin is the capital city of the U.S. state of Texas, as well as the seat and largest city of Travis County, with portions extending into Hays and Williamson counties. Incorporated on December 27, 1839, it is the 11th-most-populous city ...
. The fourth largest environmental agency in the United States (and the third largest state environmental agency, behind the
US Environmental Protection Agency
The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is an independent executive agency of the United States federal government tasked with environmental protection matters. President Richard Nixon proposed the establishment of EPA on July 9, 1970; it be ...
, the
California EPA
The California Environmental Protection Agency, or CalEPA, is a state cabinet-level agency within the government of California. The mission of CalEPA is to restore, protect and enhance the environment, to ensure public health, environmental qu ...
, and the
New York DEC), it employs approximately 2,780 employees, has 16 regional offices, and has a $420 million operating budget for the 2016 fiscal year.
History
Creation
The history of natural resource protection by the State of Texas is one of gradual evolution from protecting the right of access to natural resources (principally surface water) to a broader role in protecting public health and conserving natural resources for future generations of Texans.
Natural resource programs were established in Texas at the turn of the 20th century, motivated initially by concerns over the management of water resources and water rights. In parallel with developments in the rest of the nation, and at the federal level, state natural resource efforts broadened at mid-century to include the protection of air and water resources, and later to the regulation of hazardous and non-hazardous waste generation.
During the 1990s, the Texas Legislature moved to make natural resource protection more efficient by consolidating programs. This trend culminated in the creation of the Texas Natural Resource Conservation Commission in the fall of 1993 as a comprehensive environmental protection agency. Sunset legislation passed by the Texas Legislature in 2001 changed the agency's name to the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality and continued the agency until 2013. During the special session of the 81st Legislature (2009), legislation was adopted amending the 2013 date to 2011, at which time the agency was continued for an additional 12 years and subject to review in 2023.
Probe into Harvey air monitoring
In 2017, the TCEQ had approximately 500 people assisting in the response to
Hurricane Harvey
Hurricane Harvey was a devastating Category 4 hurricane that made landfall on Texas and Louisiana in August 2017, causing catastrophic flooding and more than 100 deaths. It is tied with 2005's Hurricane Katrina as the costliest t ...
.
During and long after the event, the agency kept the public informed by posting air monitoring data in near real-time, status of public water systems, and other information on its Hurricane Harvey webpage.
In March 2019, the ''
Los Angeles Times
The ''Los Angeles Times'' (abbreviated as ''LA Times'') is a daily newspaper that started publishing in Los Angeles in 1881. Based in the LA-adjacent suburb of El Segundo since 2018, it is the sixth-largest newspaper by circulation in the Un ...
'' reported that TCEQ and the
Environmental Protection Agency
A biophysical environment is a biotic and abiotic surrounding of an organism or population, and consequently includes the factors that have an influence in their survival, development, and evolution. A biophysical environment can vary in scale f ...
(EPA) had refused
NASA
The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA ) is an independent agency of the US federal government responsible for the civil space program, aeronautics research, and space research.
NASA was established in 1958, succeeding t ...
's offer to collect
air pollution
Air pollution is the contamination of air due to the presence of substances in the atmosphere that are harmful to the health of humans and other living beings, or cause damage to the climate or to materials. There are many different types ...
data in Harvey's aftermath,
wherein NASA would have flown a
DC-8
The Douglas DC-8 (sometimes McDonnell Douglas DC-8) is a long-range narrow-body airliner built by the American Douglas Aircraft Company.
After losing the May 1954 US Air Force tanker competition to the Boeing KC-135, Douglas announced in July ...
over Houston
to identify up to 450 chemical compounds.
Michael Honeycutt of the TCEQ and EPA responded to the press that the TCEQ's ground-level analysis, "which found few problem areas," was the best approach.
The TCEQ argued that the NASA data would have been too high in the air to be relevant to people on the ground, and would have overlapped with their own data and been "confusing" or conflicting.
The decision resulted in controversy, with opponents arguing the extra data would have been a boon for research and assessing public threats.
On March 7, 2019, Congressional Democrats launched a probe into the refusal.
The TCEQ posted a letter it received from the U.S. House Committee on Science, Space, and Technology, and its response, on its Harvey webpage.
Commissioners
The TCEQ has three full-time commissioners, who are appointed by the governor, to establish overall agency direction and policy, and to make final determinations on contested permitting and enforcement matters. The commissioners are appointed for six-year terms with the advice and consent of the Texas Senate. A commissioner may not serve more than two six-year terms, and the terms are staggered so that a different member's term expires every two years. The governor also names the chairman of the commission. The current commissioners of the TCEQ are Jon Niermann (chairman), Emily Lindley, and Bobby Janecka.
Mission statement
"The Texas Commission on Environmental Quality strives to protect our state's public health and natural resources consistent with sustainable economic development. Our goal is clean air, clean water, and the safe management of waste."
Divisions and programs
Office of Air
The Office of Air oversees all air permitting activities. The office also implements plans to protect and restore air quality in cooperation with local, regional, state, and federal stakeholders. It tracks progress toward environmental goals, adapting plans as necessary.
The Air Quality Division works to protect and restore air quality through four programs: Air Implementation Grants, Air Industrial Emissions Assessment, Air Modeling and Data Analysis, and Air Quality Planning. The Air Permits Division processes air permits and authorizations for facilities that, when operational, would emit contaminants into the atmosphere. The division does this through two major air permitting programs, New Source Review (NSR) Permits and Title V Federal Operating Permits.
Office of Water
The Office of Water oversees all aspects of planning, permitting, and monitoring to protect the state's water resources.
The Office of Water is responsible for the implementation of the following major programs:
* Public Drinking Water
* Water Rights
* Interstate River Compacts
* Watermaster
* Districts and Utilities
* Groundwater Protection
* Texas Surface Water Quality Standards
* Nonpoint Source Program
* Wastewater, Storm Water, and Concentrated Animal Feeding Operation Permitting
* Surface Water Quality Monitoring
* Watershed Protection Plans and Total Maximum Daily Loads
* Galveston Bay Estuary Program
Office of Waste
The office implements federal and state laws related to the regulation of aboveground and underground petroleum storage tanks, generation, treatment, storage, and disposal of municipal, industrial, low-level radioactive, and hazardous wastes; and the recovery and processing of uranium and disposal of byproduct. It also oversees state cleanup of contaminated sites.
In the summer of 2016,
Texas State Representative John Lujan
John Lujan III (born June 7, 1962) is a firefighter and former Bexar County sheriff’s deputy, who serves as a Republican member of the Texas House of Representatives for District 118 in San Antonio.
2016 special election for District 118
He wo ...
called upon the commission to clean up a large used-
tire
A tire (American English) or tyre (British English) is a ring-shaped component that surrounds a Rim (wheel), wheel's rim to transfer a vehicle's load from the axle through the wheel to the ground and to provide Traction (engineering), t ...
dump located in his
San Antonio
("Cradle of Freedom")
, image_map =
, mapsize = 220px
, map_caption = Interactive map of San Antonio
, subdivision_type = Country
, subdivision_name = United States
, subdivision_type1= U.S. state, State
, subdivision_name1 = Texas
, s ...
House district. The abandoned tires often contain
mosquito
Mosquitoes (or mosquitos) are members of a group of almost 3,600 species of small flies within the family Culicidae (from the Latin ''culex'' meaning " gnat"). The word "mosquito" (formed by ''mosca'' and diminutive ''-ito'') is Spanish for "li ...
es,
flies
Flies are insects of the order Diptera, the name being derived from the Greek δι- ''di-'' "two", and πτερόν ''pteron'' "wing". Insects of this order use only a single pair of wings to fly, the hindwings having evolved into advanced ...
,
snake
Snakes are elongated, Limbless vertebrate, limbless, carnivore, carnivorous reptiles of the suborder Serpentes . Like all other Squamata, squamates, snakes are ectothermic, amniote vertebrates covered in overlapping Scale (zoology), scales. Ma ...
s, and small animals and is difficult to spray with
insecticide
Insecticides are substances used to kill insects. They include ovicides and larvicides used against insect eggs and larvae, respectively. Insecticides are used in agriculture, medicine, industry and by consumers. Insecticides are claimed to b ...
s. Lujan first visited the site years earlier when he was a
firefighter
A firefighter is a first responder and rescuer extensively trained in firefighting, primarily to extinguish hazardous fires that threaten life, property, and the environment as well as to rescue people and in some cases or jurisdictions also ...
; he concluded that conditions have worsened, that the site is a fire hazard, and he implored action by the state.
Office of Compliance and Enforcement
The Office of Compliance and Enforcement enforces compliance with the state's environmental laws, responds to emergencies and natural disasters that threaten human health and the environment, oversees dam safety, and monitors air quality within Texas. In addition, the office oversees the operations of 16 regional offices and one special-project office across the state.
Take Care of Texas
TCEQ spearheads Take Care of Texas, a personal responsibility campaign to help Texans decrease their impact on the environment. In 2018, country recording artist
Cody Johnson
Cody Daniel Johnson (born May 21, 1987) is an American country music singer-songwriter. He self-released six albums, including ''Gotta Be Me'', which debuted at number two on ''Billboard''s Country Albums chart, before releasing his first major- ...
teamed up with the agency to produce a public service announcement that encourages protection of the state's natural resources.
- Cody Johnson and TCEQ team up to Take Care of Texas
/ref>
See also
* Climate change in Texas
The climate in Texas is changing partially due to global warming and rising trends in greenhouse gas emissions.
References
External links
Texas Commission on Environmental Quality
** (predecessor agency)
{{DEFAULTSORT:Texas Commission On Environmental Quality
Environmental Quality, Texas Commission on
Environment of Texas
State environmental protection agencies of the United States