GBCPA Press Release
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE 
July15, 2004
CONTACT: Katie Chimenti, 281-286-9750
Jim Blackburn, 713-524-1012

Citizens to Sue TCEQ over Ozone Violations

As the greater Houston area enters the season of ozone alerts routinely accompanying weather broadcasts, a watchdog group has filed a notice of intent to sue the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality for its failure to insist on making the region's air safe to breathe.
     Ozone is a pollutant for which a National Ambient Air Quality Standard has been set. The Houston-Galveston region has been out of attainment with the one-hour ozone standard since the passage of the Clean Air Act of 1970.
    "The State of Texas through its environmental agency has failed to attain the national standard after 34 years," said Jim Blackburn, Chair of the Galveston Bay Conservation and Preservation Association (GBCPA). "This is unacceptable and violates the law."
    GBCPA will therefore file suit against the TCEQ under the citizen suits provision of the Clean Air Act. This provision allows anyone to take legal action against a state agency that is in violation of a U.S. Environmental Protection Agency order on a timetable of compliance with the act.
     "Thirty-four years is more than enough time," said Blackburn. "By now we should have a plan in place that would demonstrate achievement of the ozone standard, but there is no such plan."

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Citizens to Sue TCEQ, 2 of 3

     In December of 2000, TCEQ's predecessor agency (the Texas Natural Resource Conservation Commission) filed revisions to the State Implementation Plan for the Houston-Galveston ozone non-attainment area. Included were three "enforceable commitments": to complete mid-course review by May 1, 2004; to adopt measures for additional NOx (nitrogen oxide) reductions; and to adopt rules for those reductions. The EPA approved the Texas plan with these three enforceable commitments.
    "This is the plan that should be in place by now, improving the air quality of the region," said Blackburn. "But May 1 has come and gone, and TCEQ has not complied with any of the three undertakings."
    The notice of intent to sue, dated July 14, was addressed to TCEQ Chair Kathleen Hartnett White, Commissioners Ralph Marquez and Larry Soward, and Acting Executive Director Glenn Shankle. It charges that the agency and the commissioners themselves are responsible for violations of the EPA order beginning on May 2, 2004, with each day beyond that date constituting an additional violation.
    Numerous members of GBCPA live in the Houston-Galveston non-attainment area. Many live in the eastern part of Harris County, where residents are subject to some of the higher levels of ozone air pollution within the non-attainment area.
    For the past six years GBCPA has spearheaded opposition to the Port of Houston Authority's proposed mega-container port at Bayport. The group contends that because of the large-scale diesel emissions of ships, trucks, and dockside heavy equipment, the Bayport project is unacceptable. It would only further compromise regional air quality that is already out of compliance with federal law.

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Citizens to Sue TCEQ, 3 of 3

    In the Bayport Environmental Impact Statement, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers found the proposed Bayport project to be in compliance with the State Implementation Plan for the Houston-Galveston non-attainment area, based on the assumption that the State of Texas would follow through with with that plan and based on assurances from the TCEQ.
    The Corps' determination that the Bayport facility would be in compliance with a legal State Implementation Plan is disembowelled by TCEQ's failed commitments. Blackburn further charges that computer modeling used by the TCEQ does not incorporate all the known sources of reactive hydrocarbon emissions and cannot provide a realistic basis for decision making.
    GBCPA is also appealing a recent federal court decision upholding the permit for the Bayport project. On April 15 Texas City broke ground for a new regional container port at Shoal Point, a site originally under consideration as an alternative to Bayport. Shoal Point has no residential neighbors and presents much lower environmental risks than Bayport.

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Galveston Bay Conservation and Preservation Association
P.O. Box 323, Seabrook, Texas 77586
Phone: 281-326-3343
Website: http://www.gbcpa.net
E-mail: gbcpa@ev1.net