Chapter 10: Environment and Natural Resources
Provide Incentives for Linking
Private Air Quality Monitoring Systems to
State Systems
Summary
Emerging air-quality monitoring technologies that allow government agencies
to collect real-time data from remote locations would help the Texas Natural
Resource Conservation Commission (TNRCC) assess pollution events and move
rapidly to identify their causes. By giving regulated companies incentives to
directly link such monitoring devices to TNRCC, air pollution problems could be
identified and remedied quickly and efficiently.
Background
About 150 stationary air-quality monitoring stations operated by the TNRCC
measure general air quality in various populated areas around the state. Through
its MeteoStar Data Acquisition System developed in 1998, the agency is able to
receive real time data from the stations. Using an Environmental Protection
Agency (EPA) grant in 1999, TNRCC expanded the system by linking two
privately-owned regional monitoring systems to MeteoStar (formerly known as
LEADS).[1]
The system gathers detailed air quality data in real time, greatly increasing
the agency’s ability to collect, analyze, and report such information. The
EPA recognized the LEADS system as the new standard for all continuous air
monitoring systems in the
nation.[2]http://www.tnrcc.state.tx.us/admin/topdoc/sfr/057_98/index.html
In addition, several TNRCC mobile monitoring units travel to locations where
air pollution problems are
reported.[3]http://www.tnrcc.state.tx.us/admin/topdoc/sfr/057_99/index.html
The state also relies on neighborhood complaints or the companies it regulates
to report emissions problems. TNRCC uses the information gathered by these
methods to penalize regulated companies for air pollution incidents and provide
them with instructions on how to clean up their problems.
TNRCC Air Permitting
TNRCC regulates an estimated 12,000 companies that hold formal air quality
permits and licenses, and another 55,000 that operate under various legal
clean-air requirements.[4] The agency regulates
such companies through a combination of permits, emissions monitoring, and
inspections.
Under Title V of the federal Clean Air Act, all federal air pollution
regulations are combined into a single operating permit for each regulated
company. By identifying and listing every applicable requirement for each
company, these permits improve compliance and, thus, reduce emissions.
TNRCC requires companies to obtain new permits whenever they modify any of
their regulated facilities. To be approved, such changes cannot affect public
health, and must employ the best available pollution control technology, based
on reasonable costs. The agency also can issue a permit specifying a cap on air
pollution that allows a company to modify its facilities as long as its
emissions stay under the cap.
Until recently, regulated facilities built prior to the state’s 1971
Clean Air Act were exempted from more stringent regulation if they remained
unmodified. The 1999 Legislature, however, required these older facilities to
phase in improvements and apply for new permits by September 2001 or face high
fees for their emissions. In addition, all electric utilities that had been
exempt in Texas must be permitted by TNRCC by May 2003 or close
down.[5]
Unauthorized Air Emissions
TNRCC has difficulty identifying regulated companies that exceed their air
pollution limits either through “upset” or “maintenance”
events, according to a review by the state’s Sunset Advisory
Commission.[6] An upset event is an unplanned,
unauthorized air emission; a maintenance event is a planned event expected to
cause air emissions that exceed permit limits.
Companies that exceed their limits can be exempted from fines and other
penalties if they meet certain reporting and record-keeping requirements. Some
companies, however, take advantage of weaknesses in TNRCC’s monitoring by
not reporting or delaying the reporting of pollution events, knowing that it is
sometimes difficult for the agency to know where and when short-term pollution
events occur.
Monitoring devices placed on the fence lines or smokestacks of regulated
companies could provide TNRCC with better, more timely information about air
emissions, more quickly than is presently possible, and thus allow the agency to
address pollution problems more quickly and efficiently. Additional air quality
information also would help the agency map out and plan better strategies for
controlling and reducing air pollution.
Yet these monitoring devices would be too expensive for the government to
install at all regulated companies. Instead, incentives should be given to these
companies to voluntarily purchase, install and directly connect these remote
monitors to TNRCC’s MeteoStar Data System.
Recommendation
The Texas Natural Resource Conservation Commission
(TNRCC) should provide regulated companies with incentives to install monitoring
systems and link them with TNRCC’s MeteoStar Data System.
TNRCC should give incentives to regulated companies that voluntarily
purchase, install and directly connect their remote monitors to TNRCC. These
monitors would provide continuous, real-time data to the agency’s Internet
server from both fence lines and smoke stacks for TNRCC review. The incentives
granted could be similar to those TNRCC already provides under its Clean Texas
Program, such as on-site technical assistance, expedited permitting, reduced
reporting and record-keeping requirements, and reduced inspections, consistent
with federal requirements.[7]
Greater use of continuous, real-time monitoring would help TNRCC move to a
results-based system. Instead of providing detailed instructions to regulated
companies on how to clean up problems, TNRCC could outline the desired end
results and allow individual companies to decide how best to deal with the
cleanup.
Fiscal Impact
TNRCC would incur only negligible software development costs to modify its
MeteoStar System to link with corporate remote monitoring systems. Improved
monitoring would allow the agency to save money and redirect resources into
creating a new vision for its regulatory program.
The primary costs would be borne by companies that would choose to install
continuous emissions monitors at various locations along fence lines or on smoke
stacks at a cost of $3,000 to $10,000 per unit. The decision to link with
TNRCC’s MeteoStar System, however, would be voluntary.
[1] Interview with Steve Spaw,
director, Monitoring Operations Division, Texas Natural Resource
Conservation Commission, Austin, Texas, April 18,
2000.
[2] Texas Natural Resource
Conservation Commission, Biennial Report to the 76th Legislature,
Volume II (Austin, Texas, December 1998), pp.
33–36 (). (Internet document.)
[3] Texas Natural Resource
Conservation Commission, Biennial Report to the 77th Legislature,
Volume I: Protecting a Thriving Texas (Austin,
Texas, March 2000), pp. 15-16 (). (Internet
document.)
[4] Texas Natural Resource
Conservation Commission, State of the Texas Environment: Strategic Plan,
Fiscal Years 2001-2005, Volume 2 (Austin, Texas, June 2000), p.
22.
[5] Texas Natural Resource
Conservation Commission, Biennial Report to the 77th Legislature,
Volume I: Protecting a Thriving Texas, p.
27.
[6] Sunset Advisory Commission,
Texas Natural Resource Conservation Commission, Staff Report (Austin,
Texas, May 2000), pp. 41-48.
[7] Texas Natural Resource
Conservation Commission, “Clean Industries Plus: Program
Description,” Austin, Texas, April 1999, p. 12.
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