Rep. Burgess and the Fort Worth City Council were briefed on issues related to gas drilling in North Texas by TCEQ, and given inaccurate test results of air quality. When TCEQ realized they had given bad information, they didn’t attempt to contact anyone they had previously briefed. Here is an excerpt from a Fort Worth Star Telegram article:
Burgess said he was recently briefed by the TCEQ on air quality issues related to gas drilling and found it disturbing that he hadn’t been presented with all the data.
"I relied on the information I was given, as did many others in North Texas," Burgess said in a statement. "I find it personally offensive to find out that what I have been told may not be the full story on the air quality issues in the area that affect millions of North Texans. There are a lot of questions that TCEQ needs to answer, and the public is right to demand accountability."
The TCEQ conducted air tests in Fort Worth in December and told city officials at a public meeting in January that the air was safe. State officials later discovered that the tests had been done with equipment that wasn’t sensitive enough to measure lower levels of some compounds that could be harmful under long-term exposure. Samples were retested.
After three showed higher levels of an airborne toxic compound, the agency took new samples at those sites but didn’t tell the city or the public.
This past week, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) made steps to take over issuing operating permits for refineries and other heavy industries from Perry’s TCEQ. Perry said it was a "big government" move, part of the Obama administration’s "concerted effort to transfer power away from the states to the federal government."
Not surprisingly, this is just spin from Perry— the EPA has been criticizing Perry’s TCEQ since when Bush was in office, and this is a long- running dispute over the lax oversight that Perry’s TCEQ has been providing, which results in more pollution here in Texas. Read this article from the Fort Worth Star Tribune about called, "Texas governor should watch what he says about EPA." Here is an excerpt:
But the governor is wrong to blame the EPA’s action on President Barack Obama. Documents available on the TCEQ website show the EPA objected to the Texas permit process at least as long ago as 2006, under the administration of President George W. Bush. Those objections have been the subject of continuing meetings and often strongly worded correspondence between EPA and TCEQ officials ever since.
Perry wants to distract Texans by criticizing the Obama administration, but the truth is that his record of failure stretches back into the Bush administration. These new revelations that Perry’s TCEQ has been hiding bad data from local leaders should alarm everyone.
TCEQ is just another Perry-controlled agency that is under fire for incompetence and mismanagement. An audit of the Texas Department of Transportation that was released this week showed the agency should significantly alter its leadership structure, calling it a "singular deeply entrenched culture."
Charles Kuffner (http://offthekuff.com/wp/?p=28538) gave a good briefing on the importance of this issue:
From my perspective, how many more examples do you need of Rick Perry’s failure as Governor? The single biggest power the Governor has, one Perry has used to put an indelible stamp on the state, is the power of appointment. His people have been running TxDOT for nearly a decade now. Whatever problems it has, they’re his responsibility. Whatever needs to be done to fix it that hasn’t been done, that’s his responsibility, too. And as long as TxDOT is his responsibility, nothing is going to change no matter what a bunch of consultants put in a report. The problems start at the top.