Biennial Report to the 83rd Texas Legislature: Texas Commission on Environmental Quality Page: 11
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0
Y20 1 -FY201 2
or replacing school buses with cleaner emis-
sion technologies, removing hazards from
bays and beaches, and improving nesting
conditions for colonial water birds.
A regulated entity that meets program re-
quirements may propose its own custom SEP
if the proposed project is environmentally
beneficial and the party performing the SEP
was not already obligated or planning to
perform the SEP activity before the violation
occurred. Additionally, the activity covered
by a SEP must be one that is above and
beyond what is already required by state
and federal environmental laws.
As of Sept. 1, 201 1, the Texas Water
Code gives the TCEQ the discretion to
allow ocal governments cited in enforce-
ment actions to use SEP money to achieve
compliance with environmental laws or to
remediate the harm caused by the viola-
tions in the case. This compliance SEP may
be offered to governmental authorities such
as school districts, counties, municipalities,
junior-college districts, river authorities, or
water districts.
Other than compliance SEPs, a SEP can-
not be used to remediate a violation or any
environmental harm caused by a violation,
or to correct any illegal activity that led to
an enforcement action.
Compliance History
Since 2002, the agency has rated the com-
pliance history of every owner or operator
of a facility that is regulated under certain
state environmental aws.
An evaluation standard has been used
to assign a rating to about 300,000 entities
regulated by the TCEQ that are subject to
the compliance-history rules. The ratings take
into consideration prior enforcement orders,
court judgments, consent decrees, criminal
convictions, and notices of violation, as well
as investigation reports, notices, and disclo-
sures submitted in accordance with the Texas
Environmental, Health, and Safety Audit
Privilege Act. Agency-approved environmen-
tal management systems and participation in
agency-approved voluntary pollution-reduc-
tion programs are also taken into account.An entity's classification comes into play
when the TCEQ considers matters regardingnot only enforcement but also permit actions,
the use of unannounced investigations, and
participation in innovative programs.
Each September, regulated entities are
classified or reclassified. (The ratings data-
base can be found at <wwwl 1 .tceq.texas.
gov/oce/ch/>.)
Ratings below 0. 10 receive a classifica-
tion of "high," which means that those enti-
ties have an "above-satisfactory compliance
record" with environmental regulations. Rat-
ings from 0.10 to 55.00 merit "satisfactory"
for having "generally complied." Ratings
greater than 55.00 result in an "unsatisfac-
tory" classification because these entities
"performed below minimal acceptable
performance standards."
An entity with no compliance information
for the last five years will not receive a clas-
sification and is therefore "unclassified."
In 201 1, House Bill 2694 called for
changes to the compliance history rule.
The commission responded in 2012 by
adopting revisions to 30 Texas Adminis-
trative Code Chapter 60 (Compliance
History). This allows the TCEQ to use new
standards, instead of the existing uniform
standard, for evaluating and using compli-
ance history. In addition, the adopted rule
modified the components and formula
of compliance history to provide a more
accurate measure of regulated entities'
performance and to make compliance his-
tory a more effective regulatory tool. Thesechanges will be reflected in compliance
history information for fiscal 201 3.
Critical Infrastructure
In November 2011, the TCEQ created the
Critical Infrastructure Division within the Of-
fice of Compliance and Enforcement (OCE).
This new division combines elements from
the OCE that are critical to the agency's
responsibilities under the Texas Homeland
Security Strategic Plan. The division seeks to
ensure compliance with environmental regu-
ations and, during disaster conditions, to
support regulated critical infrastructures that
are essential to the state and its residents.
This includes not only responding to but also
recovering from disasters.
The Critical Infrastructure Division
programs are Dam Safety and Emergency
Management Support, as well as Homeland
Security, which includes compliance investi-
gations involving radioactive materials and
the federally funded BioWatch. The latter is
a federally funded initiative aimed at early
detection of bioterrorism agents.
Dam Safety
The Dam Safety Program monitors and regu-
lates both private and public dams in Texas.
The program periodically inspects dams that
pose a high or significant hazard and issues
recommendations and reports to the damCompliance History Designations, September 2012
Classifications are updated each September to reflect the previous five years.
High 37,405 12.48%
Satisfactory 9,619 3.21%
Unsatisfactory 1,643 .55%
Unclassified 251,111 83.76%
Total 299,778 100%
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Texas Commission on Environmental Quality. Biennial Report to the 83rd Texas Legislature: Texas Commission on Environmental Quality, report, November 2012; Austin, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth578362/m1/13/: accessed April 25, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting UNT Libraries Government Documents Department.