Despite Pleas (Including from County Judge), State Office Says No to River Pollution Public Meeting

The Executive Director of the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ) has decided there will be no public meeting over LCRA’s application to relax pollution requirements at the Fayette Power Project.

Several local citizens, including Fayette County Judge Dan Mueller, petitioned TCEQ for a public meeting so that state experts can explain to the public that no harm will come from the proposed changes. Among those changes, LCRA wants to reduce mandatory reporting requirements related to selenium in wastewater discharges. Those discharges eventually end up in the Colorado River.

Last month, TCEQ notified interested parties that the Commission’s executive director “has determined not to hold a public meeting on this application.” One of the interested parties, a local landowner, shared with the Record a copy of the letter he received.

The letter cited a section of Texas Administrative Code that specifies when TCEQ may hold a public meeting.

The letter states the following: “These rules require that a public meeting be held if: (1) the Executive Director determines that there is a substantial or significant degree of public interest in an application; (2) a member of the legislature who represents the general area in which the facility is located or proposed to be located requests that a public meeting be held; or (3) when a public meeting is otherwise required by law.”

According to a TCEQ database, the Commission received 23 public comments on LCRA’s application, including one from State Rep. Stan Kitzman. On Oct. 14, 2025, Kitzman wrote to TCEQ requesting a public meeting. In his letter, Kitzman stated that, “My constituents have expressed deep concern and a strong desire for transparency and public engagement in the decision-making process.”

Two weeks later, on Oct. 30, Kitzman sent an email to TCEQ withdrawing his request for a meeting. That appears to have derailed the effort. The public comment period has now ended. On Jan. 23, the TCEQ issued a response to the public comments. It is replete with technical jargon and legal citations. This passage seems to get at the crux of the matter: “Related to the request to remove from the draft permit, the selenium limits from external Outfall Nos. 003 and 004 and internal Outfall No. 301; EPA’s update and revision to the “ELG Study” (40 C.F.R. Part 423 ELGs (80 Fed Reg. 67838 and EPA-821-R15-007, September 2015)) constituted ‘new information,’ which is an exception, found at 40 C.F.R. § 122.44(l)(2)(i)(B), to the anti-backsliding provisions of CWA § 402(o) that allows removal of limits from TPDES permits based on new information, which TCEQ did not have when the limits were placed in a permit, and justifies removal of the limits. More specifically, the revised ELG study supported the conclusion that the use of BPJ-based TBELs in the earlier permits constituted a technical mistake because there was not a basis for assuming selenium would be present in the discharges at treatable concentrations.”

A public meeting may have provided an opportunity for TCEQ experts to explain some of this in layman’s terms. Unfortunately, Fayette County citizens will not get that opportunity. At the Fayette County Republican Party Candidate Forum last Saturday, Kitzman said he withdrew his request for a meeting so that it couldn’t be exploited by “radical leftists and environmentalists.” He said holding the meeting would have “become a show for the far left.”

TCEQ issued a notice dated Feb. 2 that the executive director has determined that LCRA’s permit application “meets the requirements of applicable law.”

The decision whether to grant the permit will now be considered by the TCEQ commissioners at a future date.