Texas Commission on Environmental Quality

American Lung Association: Dallas' Air Is Really Dirty, and It's Gotten a Bit Worse

First, the good news. According to a report just released by the American Lung Association, the air in Dallas-Fort Worth has gotten considerably cleaner in recent years. The average number of days with unhealthy levels of ozone has been cut in half over the past decade, and the concentration of harm ... More >>

Dallas' City Plan Commission Just Got a Very Special Workshop on How Safe Gas Drilling Is

When we last left the beleaguered members of the City Plan Commission, they were opting to once again delay a vote on energy company Trinity East's application to drill for natural gas in the floodplain along the Trinity River. This morning, the CPC was subjected to a four-hour workshop on gas drill ... More >>

Meet Dallas Billionaire Harold Simmons, Radioactive Waste Magnate and Mitt Romney's Second-Biggest Donor

Republican presidential candidate and former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney has raised nearly $300 million, and it's largely been with the help of a coterie of extremely wealthy, and extremely prolific donors. The top donor, of course, is Vegas casino mogul Sheldon Adelson. But the second bigge ... More >>

Meet the Dallasites Who Made Forbes' List of Wealthiest Americans

Every year, the wealth fetishists over at Forbes compile an exhaustive list of the 400 richest Americans. It's a rarefied club, whose admittance requires an aggregate worth in the billions. Not surprisingly, a number of Dallasites made the cut -- 16 in fact. They range from oldies-but-goodies like ... More >>

You Can't Handle the Truth

Not if you're willing to listen Paul Ryan and his cronies, that is.

Last October's Massive Chemical Fire Caused Death of Passing Motorcyclist, Family Says

For four days last October, the Magnablend chemical plant along Highway 237 in Waxahachie burned. A flammable gas cloud had formed during the blending process and had been ignited by a spark of unknown origin. As the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality determined, "It appears that the incident ... More >>

Try Not To Breathe Too Much Today, DFW

Take a look outside your window. You've probably gotten used to that omnipresent, smoky haze that hangs over the Metroplex like a pall of economic viability -- upwind power plants a'chugging; cars snaking down tangles of toll roads and highways; shale gas production amid the cities and 'burbs slowed ... More >>

Harold Simmons' Radioactive Waste Dump Gets the Go-Ahead from State Regulators

A radioactive waste disposal company owned by Harold Simmons' Dallas-based Contran Corp. has been given the green light by state regulators to dispose of low-grade radioactive waste at a West Texas site. Representative Lon Burnam, who says he possesses confidential documentation exposing an undercu ... More >>

EPA Regional Chief Al Armendariz is Accused of "Crucifying" the Energy Industry in Texas

When President Obama appointed SMU prof Al Armendariz to the EPA regional post in Dallas back in 2009, it was to the sound of collective groaning from the energy industry and Republican politicos. Only months before, he'd authored a study citing oil and gas production as a major source of air pollut ... More >>

Welcome to Colleyville, Home of the Most Scrutinized Fracking Site in North Texas

The thing about air pollution is it doesn't heed county lines or city limits signs. Neither did the shale gas boom, until it moved into the cities and suburbs, where gas producers found themselves navigating a loud, patchwork quilt of municipal regulations that varied from town to town. It happene ... More >>

Rep. Lon Burnam: Let's Tell Texas What Scientists Think About Radioactive Waste Site

In a letter Monday, state Representative Lon Burnam called upon Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott to allow him to release to the public confidential documents he says indicate Texas Commission on Environmental Quality scientists fear a West Texas radioactive waste disposal facility may contaminate ... More >>

A Less-Than-Crushing Blow for the EPA

Last week, in response to a post Brantley Hargrove wrote about power giant Energy Future Holdings' slow death waltz with potential bankruptcy, a commenter gently smacked him for ignoring some Major News related to power plants, smokestacks, etc. "And in other [news] this kid refuses to cover. The ... More >>

Environmental Chemist Wilma Subra on the Barnett Shale Bonanza and Its Costs

By 2008, the high price of natural gas, coupled with the novel combination of hydraulic fracturing and horizontal drilling, touched off a modern-day gold rush in the Barnett Shale. Regulators were caught on their heels. "They moved forward very rapidly, and state regulatory programs had a difficult ... More >>

Texas' Biggest Power Supplier Wants to Blame the EPA for Future Blackouts

Suit Alleges Texas Issued Luminant Unlimited License to Pollute Without Public Notice

Big Brown​This little nugget slipped past us last week -- somehow, it didn't make headlines north of Austin -- but it draws the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality into a legal tussle with the Sierra Club and the Environmental Integrity Project over pollution permits it issued to Dallas- ... More >>

Who'll Stop the Rain? Rick Perry's Pals, That's Who.

A plan for the Brazos River threatens to upend Texas water law.

Dallas-Fort Worth's Air Could Be Cleanest Ever By Next Summer. He Said Sarcastically.

It was early November when watchdog group Downwinders At Risk found out that Dallas-Fort Worth had set off air-quality monitors more times than Houston in 2011. Yep, America's petrochemical hub violated EPA standards less often than we did. Depressing, right? As you may recall, the Texas Commission ... More >>

Enviro Groups Prepare To Sue Luminant's Northeast Texas Power Plants Over Air Pollution

Big Brown​The Sierra Club gave Luminant Generation Company, downtown-based and one of Texas's biggest power suppliers, notice Thursday that it plans to sue them for thousands of alleged violations of the Clean Air Act at two of its coal-fired power plants in northeast Texas. According to envi ... More >>

Sucking Up Water and Sand in the Quest for Natural Gas

For folks in the sandy hills northwest of Dallas, it's a devil's bargain for gas, water and jobs.

Dallas's Gas Drilling Task Force Navigates, Sort Of, the Labyrinth of Fracking Regulations

Photo by Leslie MinoraTask force chair Lois Finkelman and members Terry Welch and Cherelle Blazer mull over fracking regulations at yesterday's meeting.​The city's gas drilling task force slurped down a hearty helping of alphabet soup last night, with visits from representatives of the EPA (En ... More >>

Fort Worth Air Quality Study Says: Go Ahead, Take a Deep Breath. For the Most Part.

​The much-anticipated Fort Worth Natural Gas Air Quality Study, a major million-dollar undertaking to determine the air quality effects of natural gas drilling, was released toward day's end yesterday and indicates there's no need to get your gas masks out just yet -- for the most part. The st ... More >>

At Arlington City Hall, Locals Hammer TCEQ Panel for Stricter Gas Drilling Regulations

Photos by Leslie MinoraA panel of TCEQ reps maintained their poker faces for about two hours as citizens took the mic, almost all demanding tighter fracking regulations.​Shortly after the release of that Fort Worth air study, three reps from the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality took a ... More >>

Activists Hail Dallas County Commissioners Court For Demanding State, Feds Clear the Air

​Anti-gas drilling activist Raymond Crawford sends word this morning: Moments ago the Dallas County Commissioners Court voted to adopt a resolution demanding the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency do something about cleaning up Dallas's air. Long ... More >>

Fracking: What We Don't Know Could Kill a Goat. Or Give 'Em One Hell of a Nosebleed.

​Maybe the biggest problem with the fracking issue is that it involves the deadly, mind-numbing and sleep-inducing phrase "parts per billion." Otherwise I might have cracked the case long ago. Fracking is deep-well drilling for natural gas in which drillers inject water and chemicals into a l ... More >>

Toxic Avenger: In the War Between the Feds and Texas, EPA Chief Al Armendariz has Science on His Side. Is That Enough?

The City's Giving Away Shepherd Composting Bins. Say, Can I Borrow Your Christmas Tree?

​Over on the city's Official Website there's a list of the four Christmas tree recycling stations accepting your yule logs till January 14. Says nothing about Hanukkah bushes, though, which is a bit of a bummer, since City Hall just sent word it's added an incentive to this year's recycling effort ... More >>

Smokestack Lightning: Since Texas Won't Regulate Emissions, E.P.A. Will Handle Permits

Sam MertenWhat Gov. Rick Perry thinks of the Environmental Protection Agency​Surely you're aware of the ongoing battle between the Environmental Protection Agency and Governor Rick Perry over the state's enforcement (cough) of the Clean Air Act. Long story short: The governor says the feds don't h ... More >>

Drip By Last Drop, Texas Commission on Environmental Quality Goes With the Flow

Ron Jackson/Texas FreewayThe Neches River Bridge​In April 2009, I wrote about the court battle between the city of Dallas and people in East Texas over a proposed dam and reservoir on the Neches River. The East Texas people won that one, successfully persuading a judge to kill the planned reservoi ... More >>

Why Dallas Can't Strengthen Anti-Idling Rules

​On March 23, 2007, the Dallas City Council signed off on the anti-idling ordinance, which went into effect October 1, 2007, and penalized vehicles weighing more than 14,000 pounds from idling for more than five minutes between April 1 and October 31 -- the so-called "ozone season." Drivers caught ... More >>

Downwinders at Risk Launches First-Ever TV Campaign Against TXI, TCEQ and Rick Perry

Two months ago, TXI made a big deal out of shutting down four wet-process cement kilns in Midlothian -- a move hailed by Jim Schermbeck, head of Dallas-based Downwinders at Risk, as "the culmination of a 21-year fight that began in 1989 by a group of residents who found that burning hazardous waste ... More >>

At EPA's Public Comment Session Over Gas Drilling Regulations, An Airing of Grievances

Patrick MichelsEPA representatives hear concerns over current air pollution regulations for the natural gas industry Monday night.​They came in striped ties and checkered ties, sport coats and shirtsleeves and the beard stubble of Washington operators on the road. The four white-collar grunts from ... More >>

Jim Schutze Joins The Urban Explorers Who, Amid The Poisonous Snakes, Bacteria And Quicksand Of The Trinity River, Seek To Reconnect The City To Its Natural Beauty.

Liveblogging the Transportation and Environment Committee Meeting

Maybe, at some point, we should tell Andrea that council committee meetings are streamed online.​Good afternoon from the hoppin'est club in Downtown Dallas, Room 6ES inside City Hall, where the Transportation and Environment Committee is presently meeting, as Bobsky told you earlier today, about i ... More >>

Clean-Air Fund to Stop Funding Natural Gas Projects Till Industry Cleans Up Its Act

Click to expand this map provided last week by the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality​Way back in '97, and again last June, we told you the story of Sue Pope -- a Midlothian rancher who became legendary for taking on pollution-spewing TXI -- and the genesis of the fund named in her honor, w ... More >>

Strange and Passioniate Emissions From Yesterday's EPA Cement Kiln Hearing

Alexa SchirtzingerIf this picture were at all legible, you'd see Deirdre Tinker testifying while dressed as a cement kilnAmong the first 60 commenters at yesterday's public hearing on proposed Environmental Protection Agency regulations intended to reduce emissions from cement kilns, there was obvi ... More >>

Don't Want TXI to Burn Tires in Midlothian? Too Bad. TCEQ Doesn't Wanna Hear About It.

In April, public ire rose when Texas Industries scored a 10-year air permit renewal -- no public comment period required -- for its notoriously toxic Midlothian cement operation. The renewal came with one condition: TXI's cement kilns, the only ones in North Texas authorized to burn hazardous waste, ... More >>

PCB or TYA: Those Hudson River Carcinogens Are Finally Rolling Into Texas

Back in February, Alexa wrote about the pending transport of Hudson River sludge to West Texas, where Dallas billionaire Harold Simmons's Waste Control Specialists will turn one state's trash into one man's treasure. That trash in question are millions of cubic yards of PCBs -- or polychlorinated bi ... More >>

Dust in the Wind? Maybe.

From the city council's Water Conservation and Drought Plan Update, a look at lake levelsOn Wednesday, the Dallas City Council will discuss updating the city's 4-year-old water conservation and drought contingency plans, as this is shaping up to be yet another dry, dusty year. The update is necessar ... More >>

Out in West Texas, Harold Simmons Is Burying Hudson River Carcinogens

Ever wondered what's at the bottom of New York's Hudson River? Andrews, a small West Texas town 350 miles west of Dallas, is about to find out.Last month, the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality approved an application to allow the disposal of low-level radioactive waste in a site just outside ... More >>

Wonders a Downwinder: A Bad Wind A-Blowin' In From Midlothian?

In West Texas, a Dallas Company Fights to Bury Radioactive Waste

Dirty Talk: Laura Miller on "Carbon Sequestration" and "Pulverized Coal"

American Toxic

The railroad tie plant that gave birth to tiny Somerville may now be killing the town, residents claim

Ol' Man River

A body of water worth protecting

Breathe Easier? Not So Much.

Choke On It

North Texas gets schooled on the nasty politics of dirty air

Cleaning the Air About Jim Foster

Smoke Gets in Your Eyes (And Up Your Ass)

Concrete: In the Bad-Air Mix

Go Dump in the Lake

You're not going to like what officials are secretly worried about at Lake Ray Hubbard