Houston Regional Group - News

Things have been very busy with air pollution in Houston. For the first time in recent memory the State of Texas, the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ), has publicly admitted that the air plan for ozone (known as a State Implementation Plan) will not meet the 2010 deadline for clean air.

TCEQ has recommended that it be given until 2018 (48 years after the Federal Clean Air Act ordered the clean-up of ozone) by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to reduce ozone to safe levels. There is concern that EPA does not have the legal authority to give additional time to TCEQ. Some groups are saying the sanctions, including the cutting off of federal highway funding and the requirement that new polluters offset their air pollution 2:1 before they can be permitted in Houston, should be instituted by EPA against the State of Texas because it has not produced a clean air plan that succeeds. The State of Texas may ask EPA to bump it up to next most serious category of air pollution designation which would legally allow Texas more time to meet the ozone standard and not face sanctions.

Public hearings were held by the TCEQ regarding its SIP. Almost all speakers blasted the State of Texas for not doing enough and for having an air pollution plan that does not meet the ozone standard. The Houston Sierra Club (HSC) testified and enumerated many air pollution control measures that the TCEQ could have implemented but had not in the SIP.

Meanwhile the City of Houston (COH) is trying to take on more of the air pollution compliance and enforcement burden. The COH proposed changes to two air pollution ordinances. The first changed the source registration ordinance which registers, charges a fee, and inspects air pollution sources. The changes increased the number of air pollution sources which must register and adopted the TCEQ air pollution regulations as local air pollution rules so that fines can be issued to air pollution violators and these violations can be handled in municipal court. This ordinance was approved by City Council.

The second ordinance changes nuisance to add a one in a million cancer risk as part of the nuisance definition. This ordinance has caused a huge uproar in the oil and chemical industries who have lobbied City Council to slow down and kill it. A public hearing was held on the both ordinances and overwhelmingly the public testified in favor of the ordinances. Several industrial groups requested more time to work with the COH on the nuisance ordinance. Mayor White stated he would wait six weeks and work with all stakeholders but that he was not going to wait forever. The TCEQ testified that both ordinances may be illegal under state air pollution law. The HSC testified at the public hearing and commented on specific provisions of both ordinances that it supported or wanted changed.

The City Council, after much debate also approve lawsuits against Texas Petrochemicals and Valero Refining - Texas for air pollution violations that occurred late in 2006. The HSC testified in favor of both of these lawsuits.

Finally, Mayor White unveiled a Houston Regional Benzene Reduction Program (HRBRP). The COH has some of the highest levels of benzene air pollution in the United States. One of the major reasons is that Houston has a huge refining and petrochemical industrial base. Since many of these industries are outside the COH the Mayor has proposed a voluntary program where specific companies would reduce their benzene air pollution by implementing air pollution control equipment or changing manufacturing processes. The HSC has provided comments to the COH to make more comprehensive and improve the HRBRP.

April 2007

Last updated:  04/01/2007.   Content © 1999-2007 by the Sierra Club.