State Allows LCRA To Relax Pollution Reporting Requirements at Power Plant
The Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ) approved the permit application from the Lower Colorado River Authority (LCRA) to relax pollution reporting requirements at the Fayette Power Project outside La Grange.
The TCEQ Commissioners unanimously voted to approve the application at a meeting on April 30. No one was allowed to speak at the meeting except for an attorney from State Senator Lois Kolkhorst’s office.
Jacob DeSelms, general counsel for Sen. Kolkhorst, read a letter from Kolkhorst in which she said, “I write to you to voice concerns my constituents have brought to my attention regarding this application. Specifically, I have heard repeatedly of their concerns about the plant’s attempts today to remove selenium limits from several of the plant’s outfalls – limits that are currently in place and have been in place for years.”
She asked the TCEQ to ensure that any changes approved do not negatively affect the local environment, especially groundwater and surface water.
“My constituents have legitimate concerns that these amendments could have negative impacts on their health and health of their community,” Kolkhrost wrote. “While I am assured that these same constituents fully support the continued operation of the power plant, they are right to demand answers on whether their health will be negatively impacted by these changes.”
After DeSelms read the letter, TCEQ Commissioner Brooke Paup acknowledged that the 11 members of the public requested a formal hearing on the matter. But she said that none of them qualified as “affected persons” under the law. One of those was Fayette County Judge Dan Mueller, and others included property owners along the Colorado River near the power plant.
Paup denied all hearing requests. She also denied all requests for reconsideration. Paup stated that “the permit will be protective of human health and the environment.”
“They took longer to read the letter than it did for them to rubber stamp that thing,” said local pollution watchdog Jerry Moerbe.
“For years, the Lower Colorado River Authority and the City of Austin have treated Fayette County as their personal dumping ground,” Moerbe said in a statement on Wednesday. “While Austin politicians lecture the rest of the state about “green energy,” they are quietly running the Fayette Power Project (FPP) in La Grange and allowing heavy metals to leach directly into our local groundwater. And the state agencies that are supposed to protect us? They are actively covering it up.”
This is a rapidly-developing story with potential legal action in the near future. Look for more in an upcoming issue of the Record.