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NOTICES OF VIOLATIONS ISSUED FOR INDUSTRIAL AND HAZARDOUS WASTE
VIOLATIONS, 1989-1998
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FISCAL
YEAR
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NUMBER OF
VIOLATIONS
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1989
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469
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1990
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438
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1991
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1,005
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1992
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506
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1993
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480
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1994
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NA
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1995
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1,077
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1996
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304
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1997
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293
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1998
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259
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1999
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187
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2000
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267
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2001
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321
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2002
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236
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Note: The high number of violations in 1991 and 1995 were due to the failure of
many industries to file an annual report with the Texas Natural Resource Conservation Commission, as required, under the Waste Policy Reduction Act.
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Source for 1989-1993: Texas Natural Resource Conservation
Commission, Enforcement Section, Hazardous and Industrial Waste Division, 1995; Sources for 1995-2002. TCEQ, Annual Enforcement Reports, 1995-2002.
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About 12,000 Texas facilities are subject to industrial or hazardous
waste regulations. As a result of inspections and complaint investigations, the TNRCC issued 236 notices of violations to facilities in FY 2002.* Many alleged violations are quickly resolved. Violations included, among others, operating without a permit, not
storing waste safely, not monitoring groundwater, not determining if a waste is hazardous; and violating land disposal restrictions.*
Violations can be issued either by a regional TCEQ office or the central office and can result either from a routine inspection,
because of failure to report or send in the necessary paperwork, or because of an official complaint lodged by a citizen.
If a company does not take adequate measures to remedy the
problem cited in a violation, the TCEQ can seek penalties and an order requiring the company to take specific action. Most of these
orders, however, are handled through a negotiation process known as an "agreed order." In FY 2002, the TNRCC issued 40 industrial waste agreed orders, and assessed more than $660,000 in
penalties. However, as part of the agreements, some $85,000 of these penalties were deferred in return for $110,000 in Supplemental Environmental Projects (SEPs).* Because these agreements can sometimes involve a series of remedial actions, as
well as penalties, it can often take a year or more to fully resolve the violations.* In some cases, where an agreed order can not be
reached, the TCEQ turns over the case to the Texas Attorney General's Office. For example, in FY 2002, the Attorney General's Office issued 8 judicial orders against industrial and hazardous
waste operators, and assessed more than $3.6 million in penalties. *
All facilities in Texas that generate hazardous wastes are subject to
regulations, including requirements for proper registration, labeling, containers, and disposal. Most facilities that generate or manage
hazardous wastes are also required to obtain RCRA hazardous waste permits or interim status approvals. These
permits subject the facilities to certain treatment standards. However, the following types of facilities and processes are usually exempt from Texas hazardous waste permitting requirements:
- Transfer facilities.
- Municipal and solid waste management facilities that manage hazardous waste from exempt small quantity generators.
- Generators that store, treat, or dispose of nonhazardous waste, including Class 1 industrial waste, on-site.
- Generators that store hazardous wastes in tanks, chip-pads, or containers for less than 90 days.
- Small quantity generators that produce less than 1,000 kilograms of hazardous waste a month, provided that no
more than 6,000 kilograms are stored for more than 180 days and only one kilogram or less per month is "acutely" hazardous.
- Facilities that treat their waste in units directly connected to an industrial production process, where waste
streams are never released into the environment (called Totally-enclosed treatment facilities).
- Some wastewater treatment units, including municipal wastewater treatment facilities and industrial wastewater
facilities regulated by the Federal Clean Water Act. These facilities must obtain wastewater discharge permits rather than hazardous waste permits in most cases.
- Some recycling operations on a case-by-case basis (only the recycling process itself is exempt).
- Elementary neutralization units that treat wastes that are only hazardous because of their corrosivity.
- Farmers disposing of pesticides.
- Clean up of Superfund sites.
- Emergency response cleanup.
(Source: TCEQ, Industrial and Hazardous Waste Division.)
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