Clean Water In the News

Anton Caputo
Express-News Staff Writer

A new report charges that hundreds of industrial and municipal facilities around the state, including a local sewage treatment plant, routinely dump more pollution into rivers and streams than their permits allow.

The report, titled "Troubled Waters," found 348 of the state's factories and utilities exceeded the amount of pollution allowed under their Clean Water Act permits more than 2,000 times over an 18-month period.

It included everything from fecal contamination from sewage treatment plants to oil and grease, to dangerous chemicals from industrial plants — threatening groundwater for drinking and surface water for recreation and marine life.

The analysis, taken from the Environmental Protection Agency's own data, was done by Environment Texas Research & Policy Center, the environmental arm of the Texas Public Interest Research Group. It was released Thursday.

The group charges that state and environmental regulators do little to enforce pollution laws. However, they noted that efforts are under way in Texas to remedy the situation.

"It pays to pollute," Adam Schurle with Environment Texas, said at a news conference in San Antonio. "The good news is that Texas Commission on Environmental Quality is considering changes to their enforcement program."

A state auditor's study released in 2003 backs Schurle's assertion that polluters often profit from their actions.

The auditor reviewed 80 Texas cases and found that polluters benefited more than $8.6 million by not complying with regulations, but that the state fined them less than $1.7 million.

The auditor's report and other pressure have prompted the TCEQ to consider revising its policy. The changes could be complete by the end of the year.

Among the top issues is the state's failure to take a polluter's profits into account when levying fines.

For instance, under current policy, if a company profits by less than $15,000 by violating its permit, regulators make no effort to recover the profit. If the company profits by more than $15,000, the state will increase the base penalty by 50 percent. But those penalties often amount to only a few thousand dollars, Schurle said.

John Sadlier, director of the TCEQ's enforcement division, said the profit issue is "on everyone's mind." The agency's commissioners will discuss it next week, he added.

Environment Texas's report covered the 18-month period from July 1, 2003, to Dec. 31, 2004. It looked at facilities all over the country, but focused on Texas. The full report can be viewed at www.environmenttexas.org/home.

Harris County, where 99 plants exceeded the pollution allowed by their permits, accounted for the most facilities in Texas on the list. Harris also led the nation among counties with the highest percentage of violators.

Five Bexar County facilities were on the list. They included the Cibolo Creek Municipal Authority's sewage treatment complex near Universal City, two San Antonio Water System plants, CPS Energy's Calaveras Lake complex and San Antonio River Authority's Martinez Creek facility.

Cibolo Creek's complex was one of only 35 in the nation to violate its permit every month of the 18-month period.

Authority general manager David Dennis acknowledged the troubles his aging facilities have in meeting water quality regulations for nitrogen and ammonia.

He said the authority first noticed the problem in 2001 and is in the midst of a $12 million upgrade to remedy the situation. The authority has promised state regulators that it will meet water quality standards by June 2007.

Dennis's three plants — built in 1976, 1979 and 1987 — dump roughly 4 million gallons of wastewater into Cibolo Creek every day. They service about 40,000 people in Schertz, Cibolo and the surrounding area.

"We certainly want to be good stewards and we recognize that it is our responsibility," Dennis said. "We're working as fast as we can to get that done."