Texas Commission on Environmental Quality

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.

At the start of the 20th century, Texas created natural resource programs to address concerns about water management and water rights. By the mid-20th century, these efforts expanded to include the protection of air and water quality, and later, the regulation of hazardous and nonhazardous waste.

During the 1990s, the Texas Legislature moved to make natural-resource protection more efficient by consolidating programs. In 1991, it combined the Texas Water Commission and the Texas Air Control Board to create the first version of the TCEQ, known as the Texas Natural Resource Conservation Commission until fall 1993. 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, when the agency was continued for an additional 12 years and subject to review in 2023.

Probe into Hurricane Harvey air monitoring

In 2017, the TCEQ had around 500 people assisting in the response to Hurricane Harvey. 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 reported that TCEQ and the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) had refused NASA's offer to collect air-pollution data in Harvey's aftermath, wherein NASA would have flown a DC-8 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.

Ethylene oxide

After the Environmental Protection Agency released a report in 2016 on the dangers of ethylene oxide, the TCEQ conducted its own review of the EPA report and concluded that people could safely inhale ethylene oxide at concentrations thousands of times higher than the EPA had concluded. The TCEQ disputed that there was sufficient evidence linking ethylene oxide to breast cancer. Scientists criticized the TCEQ conclusion, saying that the TCEQ omitted studies that linked the chemical to breast cancer and that they used a flawed analysis on the EPA report to draw erroneous conclusions.

Texas is the top ethylene oxide polluter in the United States. Its home to 26 facilities that emit the chemical.

Water pollution

According to a 2022 report by the nonprofit Environment America, Texas ranked first among American states in toxic discharges into streams, rivers and lakes. The nonprofit attributed this to the lax regulatory environment in Texas. TCEQ defended its track record, saying it worked "to ensure safe and effective management of pollutants that may enter Texas surface waters."

"Upset" events

Under federal law, companies may have "unintentional and temporary noncompliance" with pollution standards if it is "because of factors beyond the reasonable control of the Industrial User." These instances have been described as "upset" events. It falls to state regulators to scrutinize reported upset emissions. A 2023 report by the Environmental Integrity Project found that there are thousands of reports of "upset" event incidents in Texas, but that the TCEQ only took some enforcement action in one half of one percent of cases.