TCEQ sued over delay in new rules for concrete batch plants
The Harris County Attorney’s Office sued the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality on Thursday over the agency’s decision to delay new public health requirements for concrete batch plants until the facilities’ existing permits expire.
The new rules were adopted in January and will apply to the standard permits of more than 100 Houston-area batch plants, small industrial facilities that make ready-mix concrete and that have stirred concern over cardiovascular and respiratory illnesses linked to the dust they produce. At the time the updates took effect, Texas still had 1,266 active batch plants running under an earlier set of rules.
Harris County and community groups Super Neighborhood 48 Trinity/houston Gardens, Dyersforest Heights Civic Club and Progressive Fifth Ward Community Association said in the suit that the TCEQ had begun the latest overhaul of its standard permit “after Harris County, the community plaintiffs, and other stakeholders exposed the potential danger to public health from emissions of particulate matter and crystalline silica that TCEQ had never properly evaluated.”
TCEQ declined to comment on the suit since the litigation is pending.
Harris County officials praised the new permitting rule for its stronger pollution limits, setback increases and more, but said that the county’s 105 active plants operating under old permits should have to bring their facilities up to date within six months. State officials instead grandfathered in all active permits. As the new rules stand, facilities will only have to make changes before applying for a new permit, and some are not up for renewal for a decade.
“Our communities cannot wait any longer to have the protection they deserve,” Harris County Attorney Christian Menefee said in a statement. “We should be making sure these facilities are complying with the new permit as soon as possible.”
State regulators proposed the new standard permit rules last year amid legal pressure from Harris County and others, as well as an EPA investigation into discrimination claims given the concentration of batch plants in Houston’s communities of color.