Natural Outlook, Winter 2006

Safeguarding public health is the driving force behind more stringent federal drinking water standards. The TCEQ is responsible for overseeing implementation of these standards by local water suppliers and for ensuring that public drinking water is clean and healthy for all consumers.

The TCEQ is entering the final stretch of a comprehensive project to improve the consistency of agency enforcement policies and actions, and to obtain maximum compliance with agency rules and regulations.

In Region 12, Rebecca Rentz steps into the newly created role of air quality director just as the air program takes a turn in a new direction.

With Mexico's water debt to the United States resolved, South Texas businesses and municipalities are recovering from years of water shortages. Now discussions on both sides of the border turn to better methods of drought management.

While wildfires plague much of drought-prone Texas, the TCEQ is suggesting that conservation measures become a substitute for burning waste.