The Texas Commission on Environmental Quality approved penalties totaling $2,092,716 against 44 regulated entities for violations of state environmental regulations at its Sept. 23 agenda meeting, according to a news release from the agency.
Combined with $84,053 in penalties that the agency’s executive director approved against 19 entities on Sept. 22, the actions total $2,176,769 against 63 regulated entities, the release said.
Agreed orders issued by the commission covered 22 air quality cases, 14 municipal wastewater discharge cases, two municipal solid waste cases, two public water system cases, and one case each in the industrial hazardous waste, industrial wastewater discharge and water quality categories, according to TCEQ. The commission also issued one default order in the petroleum storage tank enforcement category.
Air quality violations accounted for half of the 44 entities penalized at the commission meeting, making it the largest enforcement category in this round of orders.
Agenda items from the meeting are available on the TCEQ website, the agency said. The commission’s next agenda meeting is scheduled for Oct. 7. Meetings can be viewed live on TCEQ’s Agenda Meeting Webcasts webpage, and archived meetings are posted to the agency’s YouTube channel.