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Environmentalists: Area Facilities Polluting Water

Posted on: Monday, 1 May 2006, 21:00 CDT

By Greg Bowen, Victoria Advocate, Texas

Apr. 30--Chemical plants, sewer plants and a shrimp farm in the Victoria area were responsible for more than 40 violations of the federal Clean Water Act, according to a report released by a Texas environmental group.

"When drafting the Clean Water Act in 1972, legislators set the goals of making all U.S. waterways fishable and swimmable by 1983 and eliminating the discharge of pollutants into the nation's waterways by 1985," the report, titled "Troubled Waters," states. "More than 30 years later, we are far from realizing the Clean Water Act's original vision."

The 79-page report by Austin's Environment Texas Research and Policy Center said breaches of the Clean Water Act in the Victoria area included instances in which higher-than-permitted amounts of various regulated pollutants were released into rivers and creeks in the region.

The group analyzed all major national facilities violating their Clean Water Act permits between July 1, 2003, and Dec. 31, 2004.

"Troubled Waters" reports that 62 percent of national facilities and 58 percent of Texas facilities discharged more pollution during the covered period into waterways than their Clean Water Act permits allow.

The "Troubled Waters" report lists various violations of National Pollution Discharge Elimination System permits, which are enforced by the Environmental Protection Agency and required for those wanting to use public resources for waste disposal.

The permits limit the amount of pollutants that may be discharged, Environment Texas said.

In Texas, federal regulators have delegated the NPDES program to the state, where it was renamed the Texas Pollutant Discharge Elimination System.

On the national scene, Environment Texas called for improved enforcement of Clean Water Act programs and for strengthening standards to protect rivers, lakes, streams, wetlands and coastal waters.

"America's waterways are an important part of our natural heritage, providing us with drinking water and places to swim and fish. Over the last 30 years, we have made significant strides in cleaning up our waterways, but we still have important work to do," the report stated.

The group said the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality was criticized in a report by the office of the state auditor, which said TCEQ does not consistently ensure that violators are held accountable.

"With few violations resulting in fines and with fines often assessed lower than the economic benefit derived by ignoring the law, the (state) auditor found polluters have incentives to repeatedly break the law," Environment Texas said. "Weak enforcement ... encourages pollution."

Currently, under TCEQ penalty policy, if a polluter profits less than $15,000 by breaking the law, the agency makes no effort to "recover" this economic benefit, the environmentalists said. If a company profits more than $15,000, rather than recovering all those illegally gained profits, the agency just increases the base penalty -- often just a few thousand dollars -- by 10 to 50 percent.

This means law-breakers are routinely allowed to keep tens of thousands, sometimes millions, of dollars they obtained by skirting the law, the report stated.

According to 80 cases reviewed by the state, TCEQ staff estimated that violators enjoyed an economic benefit of $8.64 million through noncompliance, according to the report. However, the fines assessed by TCEQ amounted to only $1.68 million, approximately 19 percent of the violators' economic benefit.

EPA has recommended TCEQ change its penalty policy to collect at least the economic benefit of non-compliance to make it economically impractical to violate the permit requirements, Environment Texas said.

TCEQ Executive Director Glenn Shankle has endorsed this policy change, but a final decision remains with TCEQ's commissioners, the group said.

To view "Troubled Waters," go to: http://www.environmenttexas.org/uploads/ux/xP/uxxPZz3bi2fTww3J2WR2-A/Troubled- Waters-2006-TX.pdf.

M. Jeff Taylor is deputy director of public works for the city of Houston and a member of the Texas Water Conservation Association, a group that represents a broad range of water users who have NPDES or TPDES permits.

He said permit compliance is a very important issue in the industry.

"We recognize the importance and we attempt to do the best job we can do every day to meet state and federal law. I think we do a decent job."

On the other hand, Taylor said, there are mechanical breakdowns and other problems that result in violations.

"Stuff happens. We're not immune to that. It's not because we're not trying. When they happen, we try to reach a place where we can address the non-compliance event to the satisfaction of the state. We're dedicated to the protection of the environment and we take that very seriously," Taylor said.

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To see more of Victoria Advocate, or to subscribe to the newspaper, go to http://www.thevictoriaadvocate.com.

Copyright (c) 2006, Victoria Advocate, Texas

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Source: Victoria Advocate, Victoria, Texas

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