Desperately Seeking Logic In Texas Toxics Rules - Houston Chronicle

[hatrack]

"Those who measure pollution for a living know to avoid Deer Park's Tidal Road. The air is so contaminated on one stretch of this industry-lined street along the Houston Ship Channel that state personnel will no longer occupy a monitoring van when it is parked there. On a recent night, an empty swivel chair sat between rows of computers and machines analyzing the air outside. "It's either wear a respirator or leave it unmanned," explained Tim Doty, leader of the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality's mobile monitoring team, citing the nausea, headaches and sore throats his staff has reported on previous trips there. "We've been here several times, and there has been a history of health effects along this roadway."

Yet when similar levels of chemical pollutants are found in a neighborhood, in a park or near an elementary school -- as the Houston Chronicle found in its independent investigation of air quality last summer -- the agency that Doty works for rarely finds cause for concern. That's because the concentrations of contaminants fall below levels considered hazardous enough to affect health -- by Texas' definitions, at least. A growing body of evidence suggests, however, that the state's levels may be wrong.

EDIT

The difference isn't easy to explain, since there is no documentation detailing exactly how the state's so-called Effects Screening Levels were set. In recent years, former agency employees, research scientists and articles in peer-reviewed scientific journals have said the Effects Screening Levels, or ESLs, lack scientific backing, obscure what concentrations of chemicals are safe and unsafe, and allow industry to release quantities of pollution that in other states would be considered dangerous.

"The ESLs are meaningless," said Jim Tarr, president of California-based Stone Lions Environmental Corp., a private consulting firm. Tarr worked at the Texas Air Control Board, a forerunner of the TCEQ, about the time the levels were being developed in the 1970s. "It settles the conscience of the regulatory agency, and it gives industry what it wants," said Tarr. "It has nothing to do with the health of the people that live around these facilities."

EDIT

http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/ssistory.mpl/topstory/2989506

[Maestro]

1. Ever since then Gov. Shrub

allowed industry to police itself basically, air and water pollution has increased dramatically. I live in an area that is controlled by "Smokey" Joe Barton, Rethuglican in the House. It is pathetic and the TNRCC of Texas is basically a helpless institution. It is time to enforce strict rules. The state is making most people pay $40.00 for an evironmental check of their cars during inspections yet big business gets to police itself. Pathetic!

[errorbells]

2. Kick

:grr: