Bluebonnets

Environmental Insider News, August 28, 2003

Red/Canadian Rivers Salt Water Project Ends

Railroad Commission Chairman Michael L. Williams on August 25 announced the completion of a 3-year well plugging effort, dubbed the Red/Canadian Rivers Salt Water Minimization Project, which was funded via a grant from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and administered by the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality. The contract for a $291,707 grant, of which 40% was contributed by the Railroad Commission, to plug 55 wells over a 3-year period was signed on April 6, 2001. But thanks to lower than expected plugging costs in Wichita Falls, the RRC was able to plug 87 wells - 32 more than originally budgeted - with the money available. While the final report on the project will not be available until next February, Chairman Williams beamed in noting that, "we were able to plug over 50% more wells and complete the plugging operations ahead of schedule."

Watermaster Budgets Okayed

TCEQ on August 20 approved fiscal 2004 budgets for the South Texas and Rio Grande Watermaster Districts that include reductions from fiscal 2003 budget levels as well as reduced rates. In addition, the programs will be deprived of any unspent funds from fiscal 2003, thanks to new state law that bars any carryover of funds from one biennium to the next. The result, as noted by TCEQ Presiding Officer Bob Huston, is that the Commission will be subsidizing watermaster activities for the coming fiscal year.

The South Texas Watermaster will have to live with collections estimated to total $439,873, with revenues coming from a base fee of $50 for each assessment account and from a base rate of $0.1445 for municipal, industrial, mining, recreation, domestic-livestock, and municipal use and lower rates for other uses. The highest revenues will come from storage - an estimated $111,365.70 from a base rate of $0.0578. Last year, the program garnered assessments totaling $509,811.

The Rio Grande Watermaster is expected to collect an estimated $588,000, with revenues coming from a base fee of $50 for each assessment and from base rates of $0.2510 from municipal, domestic-livestock, industrial, mining, and recreation uses, $0.2008 from irrigation uses - which will generate well over half ($382,668.96) of all revenues, and lesser rates from other uses. The assessment for fiscal 2003 totaled $625,000.

TCEQ Adopts FY 2004 Budget

At an August 22 work session, the Commission approved a final budget for fiscal 2004 that includes increases of over $50 million from the fiscal 2003 budget - $442,393,374 compared with just $391,539,626 the year before. All of the increase - and more - is due to pass-through funding via the Texas Emissions Reduction Program (TERP) and the new dry cleaning facilities contingency fund. Overall, remediation, reimbursements, and grant contracts make up nearly half - $217,706,103, including $91,284,590 via the TERP program and $56,128,637 via the petroleum storage tank program - of anticipated expenditures.

Overall, the agency will have authorization for just eight fewer employees (8.5 full-time equivalent positions) than during fiscal 2003. Significant cuts are being made in the Compliance and Enforcement area, particularly in field operations and monitoring operations, and in the areas of permitting, remediation, and registration. The Office of Alternative Dispute Resolution is being relocated to the Office of General Counsel.

In other action at work session, the Commission authorized the Office of General Counsel to sign a contract to provide payment to the State Office of Administrative Hearings for fiscal 2004 services, postponed until September 12 a discussion of enforcement issues related to administrative penalties and to the petroleum storage tank program, and approved four rules reviews, as follows:

* 30 TAC Chapter 333, Brownfields Initiatives.

* 30 TAC Chapter 328, Waste Minimization and Recycling.

* 30 TAC Chapter 50, Action on Applications and Other Authorizations.

* 30 TAC Chapter 39, Public Notice.

TCEQ Tries Again on MSW Panel

Was the timing bad or does anyone really care anymore? When TCEQ last asked for nominations for 10 individuals to serve on the Municipal Solid Waste Management and Resource Recovery Advisory Council (on May 3), only one nomination was received. The 20-year-old body is in danger of extinction if the current political climate in Austin truly means that these positions cannot be filled. So the agency hopes that there will be a slew of nominations submitted by the September 3 deadline, and if there are, the plan is to consider the appointments at the October 22 agenda. Positions available include -

* elected official from a city between 100,000 and 750,000 in population.

* elected official from a county with under 150,000 people.

* representative from a private environmental conservation organization.

* representative from a public solid waste district or authority.

* representative from a planning region.

* registered waste tire processor.