The legal battles over environmental violations and nuclear waste storage have put Texas in the national spotlight. On one hand, Texas authorities are criticized for diminishing local controls over environmental offenses, while on the other, the state leads a charge against plans to store radioactive waste within its borders—a plan that is escalating all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court.
In Harris County, officials are alleging that Texas authorities are overriding local lawsuits and settling for significantly smaller sums with polluting companies. In a recent example, the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ) settled for just $11,413 with K-Solv, a chemical distribution company responsible for releasing over 165,000 pounds of pollutants, as reported by The Texas Tribune. This amount is a sharp contrast to the maximum estimated penalty of $1.175 million calculated by county experts. Harris County Attorney Christian Menefee expressed his shock towards the settlement, stating, "You could imagine our surprise when the state of Texas settles for just that."
At the core of this conflict is House Bill 2533, passed in 2017, which allows the state to override local lawsuits, and a 2015 bill that capped the county's collection from environmental penalties, redirecting excess funds to the state general fund. The interference from TCEQ and Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton’s office has been seen as beneficial to industry, allowing for minimal penalties that some argue do little to incentivize companies to adopt more protective processes for surrounding communities.
Meanwhile, the high court's decision to take up a Texas-led dispute challenges a plan by Interim Storage Partners to transport high-level nuclear waste to an existing storage facility in West Texas. A plan met with wide disapproval from various interests including oil, ranching, and environmental groups, and blocked by a federal appeals court earlier this year. An article in The Gilmer Mirror noted that, "Oil and gas interests are concerned because it’s a threat to our industry, to the people who work in the industry, it’s a threat to the Permian Basin, and we’re the most productive oil and gas region in the United States," a sentiment conveyed by Monica Perales, an attorney for Fasken Oil and Ranch, in an interview with Marfa Public Radio.
