As Midlothian residents, we’ve been asked to look the other way as local industry increases pollution. Already, for at least an hour almost every day and for multiple days each month, Midlothian does not meet safe air quality standards set by the EPA.

Why should we sit by as industry continues to make air quality worse?

Part of that “sitting by” means accepting the science endorsed by the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ). Why is that bad?

• In our interaction with TCEQ staff, they acknowledge they are not familiar with all technical aspects of the permit (i.e., air modeling, engineering aspects, best available control technology, in-depth knowledge of cement industry).

• In the early 2000s, when Holcim last asked to increase emissions, TCEQ withheld knowledge that better technology was available to reduce emissions. They also tried to protect Holcim from having to submit a New Source Review (NSR) permit.

• TCEQ repeatedly fails to forcefully enforce permit violations.

  • In 2018, there were 4,950 unauthorized air pollution events in Texas, resulting in double the unauthorized emissions over the previous year. However, only 57 penalties were issued. Over the past five years, TCEQ has issued similarly low rates of penalties.

  • When fines are issued, the dollar figure of the penalty is so low (well below what TCEQ is authorized to issue) that it is more profitable for companies to continue to violate their permits and pay the fines than correct the problem. In 2018, TCEQ fined companies just $0.013 per pound of unauthorized emissions.

That’s why we hired Dr. Ron Sahu