Texas and California have not adequately inspected potential polluters: EPA watchdog

Texas and California state agencies have not been adequately inspecting some potential polluters, possibly raising the risk of community exposure to toxic chemicals, according to an internal watchdog for the federal Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). 

The office of the EPA’s Inspector General found that Texas’s Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ) did not keep track of facilities that have the potential to hit a certain pollution threshold. 

Of the state’s 18 facilities that apparently meet this threshold, the TCEQ did not visit 11 of them between 2017 and 2022, despite agency policy saying such facilities should be evaluated every five years.

The office found that California’s South Coast Air Quality Management District failed to inspect 27 out of 109 of similar sites between 2016 and 2021. 

The report said that this undercuts the deterrent effect that these assessments provide, adding that the fact that they were not done “potentially increased the public’s risk of exposure to air pollution in Texas and along California’s southern coast.”

The EPA divides polluting facilities into categories known as “major” and “minor” pollution sources. The facilities looked at in Tuesday’s report are not quite “major” sources, but have the potential to emit nearly as much as those considered major — at least 80 percent of the major source threshold. 

Thirteen of Texas’s 18 facilities that meet this criteria emit chemicals known as volatile organic compounds, which the EPA says can damage the liver, kidneys, and nervous system, the report said. The state allegedly failed to visit seven such sites between 2017 and 2022, while five were found to not have received a visit since before 2012. 

The report also knocked the federal EPA for not ensuring that the inspections were carried out. 

Texas’s commission governs the entire state, while South Coast Air Quality Management District deals with parts of southern California. 

In response, a statement from South Coast said that the 27 facilities’ actual emissions are “very low.” The California agency also noted that the period audited by the agency watchdog includes years that took place during the COVID-19 pandemic. 

In a formal response, EPA officials said that the agency believes that it conducts “adequate oversight” and will request that TCEQ and California’s South Coast update their plans. It also noted that “115 of 117 delegated agencies” with the exception of the two noted in the report “have identified” the relevant pollution sources. 

The Hill has reached out to the Texas agency for comment.