Credit: Michael Stravato for The Texas TribuneHOUSTON – Texas officials on Tuesday said the state’s environmental agency has added greater capacity to quickly monitor pollution across the state during storms and other disaster events, such as chemical fires.
Toby Baker, the executive director of the TCEQ, said the agency’s effort to add mobile air monitoring capacity was in motion before the EPA OIG report, but acknowledged that Hurricane Harvey was a turning point for environmental regulators.
“We learned some lessons with Hurricane Harvey,” Baker said.
Tuesday’s announcement was held in Houston’s Manchester neighborhood at Hartman Park, next to Valero’s Houston Refinery, where a storage tank notoriously collapsed during Hurricane Harvey — one of the unmonitored pollution events during the storm.
The extent of the emissions released by chemical plants, refineries and other industrial operators along the Gulf Coast during and after Hurricane Harvey is unknown due to the lag in air monitoring, according to the EPA report.