TCEQ Must Stop Blaming Mexico For El Paso Air Quality

EL PASO, TEXAS / LAS CRUCES, NEW MEXICO-- Recently, a coalition of environmental and community groups–including Sierra Club, Environmental Integrity Project, Texas Rio Grande Legal Aid, Chaparral Community Coalition for Health and Environment, Familias Unidas del Chamizal, Earthworks, Sunrise El Paso, and Sunset Heights Neighborhood Improvement Association–filed comments with the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ), calling on TCEQ to take action to clean up air pollution in El Paso, rather than trying to escape responsibility by blaming Mexico.

The coalition submitted the comments in response to a petition prepared by TCEQ, which asserts that nearby areas of Mexico are the primary cause of rising ozone levels in El Paso, and asks the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to grant Texas a waiver from imposing additional pollution control requirements on Texas sources. The Clean Air Act allows EPA to grant such a waiver in limited circumstances. However, TCEQ’s own analysis shows that Texas is contributing more than Mexico to El Paso’s ozone problem, making a waiver inappropriate here.

After receiving the coalition’s comments, TCEQ doubled down on its refusal to implement EPA’s safeguards for ozone pollution, and instead filed a lawsuit attempting to overturn EPA’s decision to designate the El Paso area as failing to meet the ozone standard. The coalition expects to intervene to oppose TCEQ’s lawsuit, and to continue pushing state and federal regulators to take meaningful action to reduce pollution levels in west Texas. 

Miguel Escoto, an organizer with Earthworks who lives in El Paso, said, "TCEQ acts like our terrible air quality is one big complex puzzle which they'd like to keep blaming on Juarez. It's no mystery at all: There are three massive fracked gas plants and an enormous refinery pumping toxins into our atmosphere, and the ever growing presence of semi truck traffic on El Paso’s highways. TCEQ must start regulating these El Paso polluters instead of playing the blame game."

Dave Cortez, Director of the Sierra Club Lone Star Chapter said, “This generations-old trope of Texas blaming Mexico for its problems is racism that fronterizas know all too well. Whether it was Asarco or Marathon's refinery, formerly owned by Paul Foster, TCEQ has a history of prioritizing the wealth of polluters over the health of El Pasoans. We need strong ozone pollution protections, and we need EPA Region 6 Administrator Dr. Nance’s help to intervene and put an end to this legacy of environmental racism facilitated by TCEQ.”

David Baake, a local attorney who prepared the comments, said, “The evidence shows that Texas–not Mexico–is the biggest contributor to our ozone problem. It is time for TCEQ to stop dragging its feet and take responsibility for cutting emissions, so that everyone in the borderlands can breathe easier. Unfortunately, it appears the agency has chosen to waste taxpayer money by filing a meritless lawsuit instead.”

Laurence Gibson, El Paso Group chair of the Sierra Club Rio Grande Chapter, said, “This is not complicated. One EPA Region 6 state, Texas, is polluting another Region 6 state, New Mexico. EPA Region 6 needs to do its job and step in.”

Hilda Villegas, Familias Unidas del Chamizal, said, “Our neighborhood is treated like a dumping ground and it took us bringing a lawsuit to produce the facts. There is no one in the state of Texas looking out for our community when it comes to environmental hazards. Since NAFTA, our community has been heavily burdened with international trade truck traffic and international industrial waste facilities, and no one accounts for the health or safety of the 7000+ residents that live in Barrio Chamizal, a predominantly Spanish-speaking, immigrant community. The compounding polluting industries–on either side of the border–are U.S. owned and should be held responsible.”