The Texas Commission on Environmental Quality is reviewing its policies to ensure that it is enforcing environmental laws fairly while air quality advocates continue to see the remedies as too little and too slow.

Meanwhile, recent explosions at a Texas City refinery are once again bringing environmental questions to the minds of local area residents.

“We need to be able to answer some basic questions, such as is the air, water and land getting cleaner as a result of our enforcement efforts. That’s what I’m hoping to get from this review of our current enforcement policies and procedures,” Commissioner R.B. “Ralph” Marquez said in a press release.

According to John D. Wilson, executive director of the Galveston-Houston Association for Smog Prevention, about two-thirds of the air pollution in Houston comes from industrial sources and diesel engines.

The Environmental Protection Agency has developed the Air Quality Index for reporting levels of ozone and common air pollutants. Air quality is measured by a nationwide monitoring system that records concentrations of pollutants at more than one thousand locations across the country. The EPA converts the pollutant concentrations to the standard AQI index, which ranges from zero to 500. The higher the AQI value is, the greater the danger.

According to the EPA, air quality in Houston reaches unhealthy levels throughout the year with, peaking between April and October.

One way to measure the health risks of pollutants is to look at their potential impact on cancer rates, according to GHASP. The Clean Air Act states that air pollution should not increase a person’s odds of getting cancer by more than one chance in one million.

Houston’s air falls short of the standard. In the most polluted areas near the Houston Ship Channel, a resident may have 1,000 times more cancer risk than the standard set by the Clean Air Act. Even in cleaner areas, pollution elevates potential cancer risk by more than 100 times, GHASP said.

Elected officials, environmental organizations and industry leaders are developing a government-mandated State Implementation Plan to clean up the air over Houston. The plan will have to comply with the federal Clean Air Act.

“Without a good plan, there is no doubt that people will continue to be unnecessarily harmed by Houston’s toxic air pollution,” Wilson said. “Pollution comes from many sources, and while industry is going to be a big part of the solution, other pieces of the program, such as vehicle emissions testing, add up. Cars that fail the test are typically releasing 10 times more pollution than most other vehicles, often with no apparent impact on the vehicle’s performance."

At-risk residents are at a political disadvantage compared to the industries that are major sources of pollution. Those who work for industry tend to minimize the problem.

Eric R. White, senior environmental scientist at The WCM Group, an environmental consulting company in Houston, air quality is slowly improving. “It’s hard for the average person to gauge the quality of the environment because change takes a lifetime, but environmental pollution has gotten better,” White said.

“Right now, public officials hear more from industry about why it is too inconvenient to clean up air pollution than they do from individuals who have to avoid being outside when the air pollution is bad,” said Wilson from the Galveston-Houston Association for Smog Prevention.

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