It seems that Big Business, and the politicians who serve them, never learn the lessons of history.
Less than a year after Hurricane Harvey flooded Superfund sites in Houston, sending toxic waste surging into the floodwaters, the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ) is poised to approve a landfill that could end up poisoning the Rio Grande.
The proposed landfill is located in a 100-year floodplain, on land that includes a tributary to the Rio Grande itself outside of Laredo, Texas. Despite telling Texas lawmakers that environmental standards prohibit building landfills in such areas, the TCEQ looks likely to side with business over an enormous outcry from environmental and minority rights advocates. Nobody is surprised.
TCEQ has a long history of being the best friend of Texas’ polluters. “The problem with some of my colleagues’ balancing is they always balance it toward economic development and don’t let the environment have an equal consideration,” former TCEQ commissioner Larry Soward told the Texas Observer in 2010.
The agency hasn’t gotten better. According to the Observer, the TCEQ refers to business interests as “customers” – revealing a disturbing mindset that turns the idea of environmental protections on its head.
As if we needed more evidence that the TCEQ was OK with pollution, a report from Environment Texas revealed that the agency allowed polluters to exceed the legally-allowable pollution emissions an incredible 938 times (!) from January 2016 to September 2017. A horrendous 49 percent of Texas’ facilities exceed their pollution limits at least once during the study’s 21-month period – making Texas worst in the nation on pollution regulation.
Now, the TCEQ is set to approve a gigantic, 925-acre landfill that will accept Class I industrial waste – materials like coal ash and industrial sludge, potentially endangering the health of local Hispanic communities and the entire Rio Grande ecosystem.
Given the fact that hurricanes like Harvey will become more common as global warming rages forward, these vulnerable communities and ecosystems will be in increasing danger. When (not if) another super hurricane hits, the toxic waste from this landfill could flow into the Rio Grande, potentially poisoning untold numbers of Texans and Mexicans.
Thankfully, there is at least one rule the TCEQ is still following – the public hearing and comment period. A public hearing is set for May 1st in Laredo at the Texas A&M International Student Center.
Additionally, the public comment period has been extended for 30 after the hearing. Immigrant, minority, and environmental activists will no doubt be making their voices heard before the TCEQ allows another polluter to win out over the vulnerable and the voiceless.