New EPA Administrator Brings Hope to Texas
by Vicki Wolf , July 2009
In June, Lisa Jackson, the new Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) administrator, held meetings in Dallas with leading Texas environmentalists to learn about the state’s environmental priorities. Organizations represented include Environmental Defense Fund, Public Citizen, Citizens League for Environmental Action Now (CLEAN) and Lone Star Sierra Club. Those who attended the meeting came away hopeful that finally Texas’ environmental issues are going to be addressed by the EPA.
Juan Parras, CLEAN’s environmental justice director, was invited to the meeting. He asked Jackson if the administration was going to make environmental justice a priority. He told her, “We have too many studies that indicate problems, and we keep doing studies.”
Jackson told Parras that the administration is making environmental justice a priority. “That’s why I’m here,” she said. The administration plans to go after 16 companies for flaring and 23 companies for leaks, Jackson explained. They plan to set deadlines for compliance with fines for companies that don’t meet the deadlines.
Neil Carman, Lone Star Sierra Club air quality director, attended the meeting. He says receiving an invitation from the EPA to talk about Texas environmental issues was unprecedented. “I have never seen anything like this from the EPA in the 17 years I’ve been doing this work.”
Carman had a good, long list of environmental issues for the new EPA administration. He says he talked to Jackson about air toxic issues and told her that communities living near the Houston Ship Channel “are suffering a great deal.” He said he was particularly concerned about benzene and 1,3-butadiene, both more hazardous than most chemicals. Texas ranks first in the United States for emissions of the two toxins.
“I told her plants don’t monitor organics,” Carman said. “They should have devices inside and outside plant property lines to see what their toxics are. If they are not required to monitor, we don’t know what we are dealing with.”
Carman told Jackson that Texas has a badly flawed permitting program. “Modeling reviews are piecemeal. They look at a sliver of benzene pollution and assume emissions are low,” Carman says. “It is a form of scientific fraud. They should look at the whole benzene pie -- all the benzene pollution for the chemical plant -- to find out what a worst-case maximum level would be.”
Flexible permits, known as bubble permits, that allow plants to average across all smokestacks rather than looking at upset events individually, is another concern Carman brought to the new EPA administrator. He also discussed the fact that new coal plants in Texas are not required to do modeling of the impact of smoke stacks on ozone.
Carman also brought up a number of issues with Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ). Lisa Jackson and the new EPA administration have been meeting with the TCEQ to look at “potential for collaboration” between the two organizations, community concerns, enforceability issues and “missed opportunities” for pollution reductions.
“Finally the EPA is lowering the boom (on TCEQ),” Carman says.
The EPA’s new list of environmental priorities targets Texas’ most urgent environmental issues:
Priority Number 1 is reducing greenhouse gas emissions. Provisions include new mandatory greenhouse gas reporting. For the first time in U.S. history, the EPA is requiring entities that emit more that 25,000 tons of greenhouse gas to track, document and report emissions information to the EPA on an annual basis.
Priority Number 2 is improving air quality. Provisions include greatly reducing emissions from cement plants, the fourth largest emitter of mercury in the United States. The emphasis on improving air quality also includes “safer schools for kids,” which involves outdoor toxic air pollution monitoring of 62 schools in 22 states. Results will be posted here. This goal includes designating a buffer zone along the U.S. coast where ocean going vessels must control emissions from dirty fuels, and reducing pollution from new sources. The EPA has already proposed stronger air quality standards for nitrogen oxide (NO2). Exposure to NO2 from cars, trucks, refineries and plants, is linked to respiratory illnesses, especially asthma.
Priority Number 3 is better management of chemical risks. Provisions under this priority include: pursuing environmental justice; improving protection of children’s health; restoring comprehensive tracking of pollutants under the Toxic Release Inventory Program; restoring US leadership on global mercury pollution reduction; and better science and transparency on chemical toxicity.
Priority Number 4 is accelerating clean-up of contaminated sites. Provisions include improved Superfund cleanups at federal sites, and protecting communities from inadequate management of coal waste.
Priority Number 5 is protecting the nation’s water by restoring water quality protections for streams, rivers, lakes, bays oceans and aquifers. This goal includes improving water infrastructure for communities; improving water security; and greater scrutiny of water quality impacts from mountaintop mining.
“I feel a sense of relief that all these issues we’ve been raising are being addressed,” Carman says. “I want to see less pollution in the communities that are suffering, and this will make it happen. There’s a new sheriff in Washington, D.C.”
