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Public commenters urge TCEQ to strengthen air monitoring and heed SOAH findings on permits
Summary
During public comment, residents and environmental groups urged the new TCEQ chair to heed State Office of Administrative Hearings recommendations, increase PM2.5 monitoring (notably in Travis County), and better address coastal permitting and flaring concerns.
At the Jan. 16 Texas Commission on Environmental Quality meeting, members of the public urged the commission to strengthen air monitoring, particularly for fine particulate matter (PM2.5), and to give greater weight to contested-case findings from the State Office of Administrative Hearings.
Errol Summerlin, cofounder of the Coastal Alliance to Protect Our Environment (CAPE), told commissioners the Coastal Bend is being targeted for industrial expansion and urged the commission to heed SOAH recommendations. "When you send a case to SOA, the judges hear all the expert testimony and from all parties... In every instance where the PFD recommended denial of a permit to a heavy industry, the commission dismissed the recommendation and grant the permit," Summerlin said, asking commissioners not to "summarily dismiss" SOAH findings.
Kathy Fulton, of Port Aransas Conservancy, recounted her experience as a participant in contested-case hearings and said administrative-law judges hear extensive evidence that the commission sometimes does not see in full. "Those judges are the ones that hear the full story and you all just get the summary," she said, asking the new chairwoman to give more consideration to SOAH decisions.
Speakers also urged the commission to retain monitoring data for PM2.5 in Travis County. Bobby Levinsky of the Save Our Springs Alliance and Cyrus Reid of the Sierra Club's Lone Star chapter said some monitors in Travis County have recorded exceedances of the new 9.0 micrograms-per-cubic-meter standard and should not be excluded from the state's nonattainment analysis. The North I-35 monitor (Site ID 484531068) and Webberville Road monitor (Site ID 484530021) were cited as having long-running exceedances, and speakers urged placement of additional monitors.
Annie Spade, a Hays County resident, and other commenters urged the commission to take a long view on protecting land, water and air for future generations and to increase monitoring along the coast to safeguard ecological and public-health values.
Commission staff acknowledged the comments and said they would circle back to commenters where necessary. Members of the public asked the new chairwoman to listen to community concerns about permitting, flaring and monitoring as the commission sets policy.
