Chapter 1: Agency Highlights

As the state’s environmental agency, the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality is engaged with every region of the state. Agency employees in the Austin headquarters and 16 field offices are immersed every day in a wide spectrum of issues related to air and water quality, water supply, and waste management. The agency is also active in promoting pollution prevention and educating Texans about protecting the environment.

During the fiscal years of 2017 and 2018, the TCEQ found itself dealing with the aftermath of a ferocious tropical storm system, the likes of which have never been seen before. The agency had recent leadership changes, including a new chairman, commissioner, and executive director. Despite an ozone nonattainment designation for Bexar County by the EPA, the TCEQ continues to experience successes in air quality. The TCEQ is working to implement the Volkswagen Environmental Mitigation Trust for State Beneficiaries, which was established by the settlement of claims against Volkswagen and related companies, and also the RESTORE Act, which will continue to provide much-needed funding for the Texas coast following the massive Deepwater Horizon oil spill.

All these activities are occurring against a backdrop of the state’s fast-growing population and expanding economy. The TCEQ has responded with initiatives adapted to changing times and challenges, while continuing its dedication to protecting public health and the state’s natural resources.

Leadership Changes

New Chairman

On Aug. 31, 2018, Gov. Greg Abbott appointed Commissioner Jon Niermann as the new chairman of the TCEQ, replacing Bryan W. Shaw, Ph.D., P.E. Niermann was appointed as a commissioner in 2015—his term will expire in 2021. He came to the TCEQ after nearly seven years with the Texas Attorney General’s Office, where he served as chief of the Environmental Protection Division for three years. Before that, Niermann worked as an environmental attorney with the law firm of Baker Botts in Austin. In these roles, Niermann worked closely with the TCEQ, among other agencies. His docket included enforcement actions, permitting issues, rulemaking, and rule challenges.

Shaw stepped down as chairman on Aug. 31, 2018. He was appointed to the TCEQ by then-Gov. Rick Perry on Nov. 1, 2007, and appointed chairman on Sept. 10, 2009. Shaw brought a wealth of experience and knowledge to his position on the commission as both a professor and a licensed engineer. He came to the agency from Texas A&M University, where he taught many courses focused on air pollution engineering. The new vacancy on the commission will be filled by the governor.

New Commissioner

On Aug. 20, 2018, Gov. Abbott appointed Emily Lindley to a five-year term on the TCEQ’s three-member panel. Lindley returned to the TCEQ after having served briefly as chief of staff for the administrator of the EPA’s Region 6. Before that, Lindley was with the TCEQ for 10 years, most recently as the special assistant to the deputy executive director. Her earlier roles at the agency were as special assistant to the deputy director in the Office of Water, government relations liaison in the Intergovernmental Relations Division, and program specialist in the Office of Public Assistance. Lindley replaced Toby Baker on the commission (see below).

New Executive Director

Toby Baker was selected as the executive director of the TCEQ on Aug. 20, 2018. Before that, Baker served as a TCEQ commissioner, having been appointed by then-Gov. Perry in April 2012. He has served as both Gov. Perry and Gov. Abbott’s designee to the Gulf Coast Ecosystem Restoration Council, where he oversees the disbursement of grants in the RESTORE program, stemming from the settlement of the Deepwater Horizon oil spill. He also created a cross-border initiative to meet with his counterparts in Mexico to address shared environmental challenges. Baker replaced Richard Hyde, P.E., who retired as the TCEQ’s executive director at the end of March.

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Hurricane Harvey

Hurricane Harvey has gone down in the record books as one of the most destructive storms in the history of the United States. Unlike the typical tropical storm that strikes Texas, Harvey made landfall twice and affected a large swath, from Corpus Christi to the border with Louisiana.

Before the Storm

While the storm strengthened in the gulf, the agency worked diligently to prepare for its impact. The TCEQ pre-positioned vital response equipment just outside of forecasted areas to both protect equipment and allow for a quick response to affected zones as soon as storm and flood conditions allowed.

As part of the coordination for Harvey, a unified command was established between the TCEQ, the Environmental Protection Agency, the Texas General Land Office, and the U.S. Coast Guard to oversee response efforts. This unified command was supported by three operational branches: Corpus Christi, Houston, and Port Arthur.

Agency staff coordinated with regulated entities to initiate their emergency plans, while also working to protect their own regional offices and equipment.

The agency developed a pump and chemical protection reference guide to help public water systems protect plant equipment and assess chemical treatment inventory and fuel needs.

The agency sent an email to water systems and operators in potentially affected areas before landfall. The email included the requirements for issuing a boil-water notice and provided boil-water notice templates that the systems could use, contact information for technical-assistance needs, and Texas Water/Wastewater Agency Response Network information.

The agency created a dedicated Hurricane Harvey Response webpage, where it posted a vast amount of regulatory guidance as well as information for private-well owners, support material, and other useful information.

The TCEQ protected its network of ambient air monitoring sites in the storm’s path. Forty-eight TCEQ monitoring stations across the Corpus Christi, Houston, and Beaumont areas were taken offline and prepped to shelter in place.

During the Storm

On Aug. 23, 2017, Harvey—which had been downgraded to a tropical wave—re-formed into a tropical storm. And because of ideal conditions in the Gulf of Mexico, the storm quickly gained power and was already a Category 4 storm before making landfall, near Rockport, on Aug. 25.

The hurricane first moved to the northwest before turning back to the east as a tropical storm, circling around Victoria, going through Matagorda Bay, and then back into the Gulf of Mexico on Aug. 28. The tropical storm stayed close to the Texas coast before making landfall again to the east of Beaumont in Louisiana, on Aug. 30.

In its report on Harvey, the National Weather Service observes that parts of the state received “more than 40 inches of rain in less than 48 hours,” and that “Cedar Bayou in Houston received a storm total of 51.88 inches of rainfall, which is a new North American record.”

That rainfall record—and the record for any United States storm—was smashed after the weather service reevaluated its data. Nederland, in Jefferson County, recorded 64.6 inches of rain from Aug. 24 to Sept. 1.

The devastation was far-reaching and affected vast swaths of the state, encompassing numerous regulated entities.

At the storm’s peak, 61 community public water systems, serving a population of 222,821 people, and 40 wastewater-treatment facilities, serving a population of 168,816 people, were rendered inoperable or even destroyed. A total of 203 community public water systems, serving a population of 376,245 people, issued boil-water notices as a precautionary health and safety measure or due to problems caused by the storm.

Most of the system outages were a result of equipment failures caused by wind damage, storm surge, or flooding conditions. Some systems were completely submerged under floodwaters, damaging critical electrical systems and rendering pumps and other equipment non-operational.

All told, about 300 TCEQ employees work in its Corpus Christi, Houston, and Beaumont regional offices, in its Sugar Land Laboratory, and in its Galveston Bay Estuary Program. Of these employees, 93 suffered significant damage to personal property, including some whose homes were destroyed by the flooding. Despite their own losses, however, they continued to serve, making valuable and significant contributions to the response effort.

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After the Storm

A Team Effort

Overall, about 500 TCEQ staffers were involved in responding to the disaster. More than 50 field teams were deployed daily throughout the 58 affected counties.

These field teams conducted a host of vital operations, including rapid needs assessments, oil and hazardous materials discharge assessments and recovery, orphan hazardous materials container evaluations and recovery, public water supply system infrastructure assessments, wastewater system infrastructure assessments, debris-management site assessments, dam safety assessments, and air quality monitoring.

The TCEQ led hazmat operations to monitor facilities that had reported spills or releases and to recover orphan drums and containers, which were found in many of the waterways.

Air Quality

In a coordinated effort to monitor air quality in storm-affected areas, both TCEQ and EPA investigators spent long hours, day and night, monitoring neighborhoods and industrial fence lines with handheld instruments such as optical gas imaging cameras, toxic-vapor analyzers, summa canisters, and multi-gas monitors. These tools provided the most effective way to quickly identify sources of drifting plumes, so swift action could be taken to address the cause of these emissions.

Assessments of specific targets as well as broad areas of storm-affected areas were conducted using optical gas imaging camera aerial surveys, the EPA’s Trace Atmospheric Gas Analyzer mobile monitoring system, and the EPA’s Airborne Spectral Photometric Environmental Collection Technology aircraft.

The TAGA system conducted monitoring in Houston, Deer Park, Baytown, Sweeny, Texas City, Beaumont, Port Arthur, Victoria, Point Comfort, and Corpus Christi.

The TCEQ conducted aerial surveys in the Houston and Beaumont areas using a helicopter equipped with an optical gas imaging camera, which can spot VOCs and other hydrocarbons invisible to the eye. Investigators followed up with facilities to address potential sources of air emissions identified during the surveys.

The TCEQ’s air monitoring stations were restored quickly after landfall. All undamaged or unflooded sites were back online within two weeks. Because of these actions, the TCEQ avoided significant air monitoring data loss and was able to provide valuable information on potential air quality issues in the wake of the storm.

According to the available air monitoring data collected Aug. 24 through Sept. 24, all measured air toxics concentrations in the storm areas were well below levels of health concern.

Damage Control

While the agency did suffer $170,000 in Harvey-related damages to its monitoring assets, it managed to protect $5.2 million worth of those assets, thanks to its hurricane-preparedness protocol.

The TCEQ, which is responsible for 17 Superfund sites in affected areas, sent staff to check for damage. Based on sampling and assessments, all of these sites were cleared. The EPA completed site assessments at all 34 of its Superfund sites in the affected areas, and all were cleared, except one. The San Jacinto Waste Pits site was found to have damage to its cap, which required repairs and additional follow-up.

After the storm, 1,155 hazmat orphan drums and containers were recovered, and 266 spills or discharges were reported or observed; all have been responded to appropriately.

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Water Issues

Immediately after the storm, through phone calls and on-site visits, the TCEQ began contacting 2,238 public water systems—which serve about 11 million people—in affected areas to ascertain operational status.

The TCEQ worked with various partners, including the National Guard and the Texas State Guard Engineering Group, to help get water and wastewater systems fully operational as soon as feasible.

Assistance teams, staffed with engineers and other public water system experts, were sent to the affected area to work directly with water system staff at their facilities to expedite the reestablishment of service to their customers. The agency expedited the review and approval of engineering plans and specifications for new wells, waterlines, and interconnections with other potable water sources to get systems back online as quickly as possible.

The agency actively worked to monitor flooded industrial and domestic wastewater facilities that reported spills, as well as conduct outreach and provide technical guidance. While wastewater facilities are prepared for increased flows during heavy rainfall events, the magnitude of the record-setting flooding affected facilities in a way that limited their ability to respond. Required public evacuation of flooded areas also interfered with the ability of regulated facilities to observe and estimate the amounts and constituents potentially discharged during the extreme flooding.

To put it into perspective, the 22.5 million gallons of sanitary-sewer overflows reported to the TCEQ by wastewater facilities equals 0.00012 percent in volume of the 19 trillion gallons of rainwater that Texas received during the storm.

The TCEQ conducted 625 on-site drinking-water assessments and 441 on-site wastewater assessments.

Every water and wastewater facility but one has been restored and is operational. The exception is the Barefoot RV Park community water system, which was destroyed and will not be rebuilt. Instead, residents are being connected to another system.

Cleanup

There were 232 TCEQ-approved temporary debris-management sites set up to help handle the cleanup of Harvey. Seven of those temporary sites have remained active to handle the continued cleanup. To ensure that these sites have been operating in a safe manner, the TCEQ conducted 2,349 inspections. The Texas Division of Emergency Management and the Federal Emergency Management Agency have reported that the total estimated quantity of debris from Harvey was 13.25 million cubic yards. The debris cleanup was 98 percent complete as of Aug. 31, 2018.

The TCEQ, with the assistance of the Office of the Governor, the Texas Division of Emergency Management, and the Office of the Comptroller, provided $90 million to assist local governments with the cleanup of debris. FEMA grants reimburse up to 90 percent of local-government debris-removal costs. The TCEQ’s $90 million will address the remaining 10 percent not covered by FEMA, affording the opportunity for local governments to be reimbursed fully for debris removal.

Expedited Emergency Dredging Project

The historic flooding from Harvey resulted in excessive accumulations of sediment and debris impeding the free flow of water down the West Fork of the San Jacinto River where it enters Lake Houston. This created a flood hazard that puts homes and businesses at imminent risk.

To address this issue, FEMA, in cooperation with the Texas Division of Emergency Management and the Harris County Flood Control District, requested the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to perform emergency dredging to remove this sediment and debris.

This activity requires a Clean Water Act Section 401 Water Quality Certification from the TCEQ, to ensure that the project is consistent with state water quality standards. Typically, it takes months, if not years, of communication between the various agencies to complete the plans for such a large-scale project. The TCEQ worked closely with the corps to ensure a streamlined authorization process, reducing the overall project-planning process to weeks rather than months. The TCEQ was able to provide the corps with the 401 certification on the same day that it was requested.

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The Volkswagen Settlement Funds

Gov. Abbott selected the TCEQ to be the lead agency for Texas’ participation in the Volkswagen Environmental Mitigation Trust for State Beneficiaries, and TCEQ Chairman Niermann to be the TCEQ’s primary administrator of the program.

This trust was established as part of the settlement of claims against Volkswagen and related companies for the use of defeat devices to pass emission tests for nitrogen oxides. The state’s allocation under the trust agreement is at least $209 million, to be spent over a period of three to 10 years. These settlement funds are required to be used to reduce emissions of nitrogen oxides. The settlement identified 10 categories of eligible mitigation actions for which settlement funds could be spent.

Under the settlement agreement, each participating state was required to develop a Beneficiary Mitigation Plan outlining how it intended to spend its share of the settlement funds. A draft of Texas’ plan was released for public input in the summer of 2018. That input is currently being considered before a final plan is issued later this year.

Restoring Texas’ Coast

Through the federal RESTORE Act, approximately $550 million in grants will be available to Texas for ecosystem restoration, economic recovery, and the promotion of tourism in the state’s Gulf Coast region. Another component of the RESTORE Act will allow Texas to compete with the other four Gulf of Mexico states and six federal agencies for an additional $1.6 billion in grants. These federal grant programs are financed by the administrative and civil penalties assessed against British Petroleum and the other parties responsible for the 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil spill in the gulf. The RESTORE grant funds will be available to Texas through 2033.

As Gov. Abbott’s appointee to the RESTORE Council, the TCEQ’s executive director, Toby Baker, oversees the implementation of the act in Texas. As part of this implementation effort, TCEQ staff, on behalf of Baker, has developed a program to allocate and manage four components of RESTORE grant funds.

In collaboration with the Governor’s Office, Baker and TCEQ staff have fulfilled a wide array of responsibilities. They

• worked with and oversaw projects conducted by the two RESTORE centers of excellence in Texas: OneGulf, a consortium led by Texas A&M University–Corpus Christi, and Subsea Systems Institute, a consortium led by the University of Houston.
• submitted a Texas Multi-Year Implementation Plan to the U.S. Department of Treasury for acceptance. A MIP is required before securing RESTORE grant funds under the direct component, or Bucket 1, of the act. This plan was developed following extensive public participation that led to the submission and review of more than 200 projects. The final MIP accepted by Treasury comprises 26 projects.
• continued to develop federal applications for selected projects included in the accepted MIP for submission and approval by Treasury to receive grant funds under Bucket 1 of the RESTORE Act.
• submitted applications for four council-approved projects under the comprehensive component, or Bucket 2, of the RESTORE Act.
• continued to provide oversight and project management for the grants awarded under Bucket 2.
• are completing planning-grant activities under three components of the RESTORE Act: direct (Bucket 1), comprehensive (Bucket 2), and spill impact (Bucket 3).
• posted a draft of the Texas State Expenditure Plan for public comment. A final expenditure plan, approved by the RESTORE Council, is required before securing grant funds under Bucket 3.
• enhanced the Texas RESTORE website, <www.restorethetexascoast.org>, which provides updated information on RESTORE-related activities.
• conducted presentations on activities associated with the implementation of the RESTORE Act.
• attended meetings of the RESTORE Steering Committee to participate in developing policies overseeing the federal act.
• participated in meetings with elected officials, representatives from federal and state agencies and non-governmental organizations, and others to discuss implementation of the act.
• These activities will continue and expand as necessary to ensure that Texas has a robust grant program that achieves the highest and best use of RESTORE funds to maximize the environmental and economic benefit to the state’s Gulf Coast area.

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Air Quality Successes

The EPA sets National Ambient Air Quality Standards for ozone, carbon monoxide, sulfur dioxide, nitrogen dioxide, coarse and fine particulate matter (PM₁₀ and PM_2.5), and lead. Over the past few decades, Texas has made huge strides in improving air quality. Most recently, the successes have centered around ozone and lead.

Ozone Levels

Ozone design values are the measurement used by the EPA to determine attainment or nonattainment for the federal ozone standard. The EPA calculates the ozone design values using a three-year rolling average. The 2017 ozone design values, based on 2015, 2016, and 2017 ozone data, are lower in many areas of the state. In fact, Dallas–Fort Worth, at 79 parts per billion, and Houston-Galveston-Brazoria, at 81 ppb, are now both measuring attainment of the 1997 eight-hour ozone standard of 84 ppb. In addition, both areas are measuring attainment for the older one-hour ozone standard for peak levels of ozone.

Almost everywhere in the state, despite the population growth, the nonattainment or near-nonattainment areas have resumed their steady decrease in ozone. From 2000 to 2017, the population in Texas increased significantly—mostly notably in the Austin–Round Rock area, which saw a 67 percent increase—while the eight-hour ozone levels improved as follows:

• Tyler-Longview-Marshall area: 36 percent reduction
• Houston area: 28 percent reduction
• Corpus Christi area: 25 percent reduction
• Dallas–Fort Worth area: 23 percent reduction
• Beaumont–Port Arthur area: 23 percent reduction
• Austin–Round Rock area: 22 percent reduction

Of the state’s 13 areas that have had at least 15 years of regulatory ozone monitoring, seven recorded the lowest or tied the lowest eight-hour ozone design values in 2017.

Lead Levels

The state’s only nonattainment area for the lead NAAQS has also seen reductions in the ambient air. In 2010, a portion of Collin County near Frisco’s Exide Technologies lead-acid battery recycling facility was designated nonattainment for the 2008 lead NAAQS of 0.15 micrograms per cubic meter. The TCEQ worked with Exide and the city of Frisco through the State Implementation Plan process to reduce lead emissions, and the area met the Dec. 31, 2015, compliance deadline for the standard. Subsequently, the TCEQ submitted a request to the EPA to redesignate the Collin County area to attainment for the lead NAAQS. The EPA approved the request, effective Sept. 27, 2017.

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Other Highlights

EPA Ozone Designations

In July 2018, the EPA designated Atascosa, Bandera, Comal, Guadalupe, Kendall, Medina, and Wilson counties as attainment/unclassifiable for the 2015 ozone National Ambient Air Quality Standards. However, it designated Bexar County as nonattainment.

The TCEQ disagreed with the EPA’s decision to designate Bexar as nonattainment, as this action creates an unnecessary burden on the county’s residents, industry, and governing bodies, without any associated benefit from an air-quality perspective. Gov. Abbott had recommended that Bexar County be designated in attainment. And the EPA had the option of supporting Abbott’s recommendation, but chose otherwise.

SO₂ Monitor Deployment

The TCEQ completed deployment of the SO₂ monitors near sources triggered by the federal Data Requirements Rule. The Legislature provided funding to the agency for these monitors.

Infrastructure Needs Survey and Assessment

The Safe Drinking Water Act directs the EPA to conduct a survey of the infrastructure needs of public water systems every four years. The surveys collect nationwide data from water systems eligible to receive Drinking Water State Revolving Fund money, regarding their 20-year capital improvement needs, to ensure the continued provision of safe drinking water. Data from these surveys are used to develop formulas for Congress to allot DWSRF grants to each state based on its need.

During 2015–2016, the TCEQ and the Texas Water Development Board assessed the state’s public water systems’ infrastructure needs for the next 20-year planning period, beginning in 2019. Texas had a drinking water infrastructure needs amount of about $45 billion and will be eligible for the second largest allotment, after California, of DWSRF funds.

Revised Total Coliform Rule

The agency adopted rules for public water systems in 2017 to implement the new federal Revised Total Coliform Rule. The new rule is designed to protect public health by initiating a find-and-fix approach to prevent fecal contamination and reduce the risks of waterborne pathogens, such as bacteria and viruses, from entering the water system’s distribution system. It requires public water systems to identify sanitary defects by completing a system assessment to find potential sources of contamination and then correct them.

The agency continues outreach efforts by providing training to water-system operators throughout the state. Workshops were held in Laredo, San Angelo, Amarillo, Wichita Falls, Frisco, Fort Worth, Dallas, Tyler, Beaumont, Houston, Rosenberg, and Corpus Christi. The agency is also providing free, on-site technical assistance to systems that are required to complete the assessments for compliance with the rule.

Lead-in-School Workshops

Even though Texas’ public water systems employ measures to ensure that the water is safe to drink, lead can still leach into a school’s drinking water from plumbing materials and fixtures within the school and move through the school’s water distribution system. While sampling for lead is not required for schools serviced by a public water system, the agency offered free workshops around the state to help schools establish programs to prevent lead in drinking water.

The TCEQ’s workshop was developed to raise awareness of the potential occurrences, causes, and health effects of lead in drinking water; assist school officials in identifying potential areas where elevated lead may occur; help establish a plan to identify and prioritize testing sites; and provide guidance if corrective actions are necessary. The training helps school officials develop communication strategies for telling students, parents, staff, and the larger community about monitoring programs, potential risks, the results of testing, and remediation actions. Workshops were held in Edinburg, Lubbock, Fort Worth, Waco, San Antonio, Houston, and Beaumont.

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Cooperative Efforts Between TCEQ and EPA

The TCEQ and EPA Region 6 water quality program managers and staff held a LEAN workshop Dec. 5–7, 2017, for the Texas Pollutant Discharge Elimination System permitting program. LEAN is a program established to evaluate and assess work processes to gain efficiencies and reduce waste. The TCEQ and the EPA customized the workshop to focus on cooperative relationships between the two agencies, to reach agreements on how to reduce backlogs related to EPA objections to TCEQ-drafted TPDES water-quality permits, and to develop procedures to reduce or eliminate future objections that delay timely issuance of permits.

At the beginning of the workshop, in December 2017, a total of 48 objections on TPDES permits remained unresolved. As of July 2018, thanks to the cooperative efforts between the two agencies, the backlog of pending unresolved EPA objections was reduced to 24. Since the workshop, only three objections have been received over a seven-month period, which represents an 84 percent reduction over historical levels.

Water Resource Management Account

The TCEQ’s Water Resource Management Account had been experiencing a shortfall that had necessitated the agency’s raising of fees. To address this shortfall, the 85th Texas Legislature transferred to the account the automotive oil fee, the Used Oil Recycling Account 0146 balance, and the Used Oil Recycling Program. Currently the account has a healthy balance.

However, with the recent legislative changes and projected expenditures necessary to manage water resources responsibly, the account’s balance is expected to fall to zero by fiscal 2028. Given this prognosis, the TCEQ continues to discuss opportunities for generating a steady revenue stream sufficient to sustain the account over the long term.

Waste Management Account

The Waste Management Account, primarily funded by the Solid Waste Disposal Fee, supports the Municipal Solid Waste, Industrial Hazardous Waste, Voluntary Cleanup, and Radioactive Materials programs. In 2013, the fee was reduced by 25 percent, and the percent allocated to the account increased from 50 percent to 66.7 percent. For fiscal 2017, the program obligations, $38.2 million, exceeded annual revenues, which were approximately $37.1 million. The agency expects the account’s balance, $29.2 million at the end of fiscal 2017, to continue to decline, as revenue remains constant and expenditures rise, due to fringe and retirement costs.

Outreach to Underserved Businesses

The TCEQ continues to manage robust Historically Underutilized Business and Disadvantaged Business Enterprise programs. Agency staff prioritize the programs’ goals through procurement and contracting, compliance with statutory and regulatory guidelines, and outreach, having participated in 28 events in fiscal 2017 and continuing at the same pace in fiscal 2018. The TCEQ is a top performer among agencies statewide, with more than $5 million in total expenditures; its HUB utilization ranked 8th in fiscal 2017 and 3rd in the fiscal 2018 semi-annual reporting period.

Expedited Water Rights

The 85th Texas Legislature passed House Bill 3735 and Senate Bill 1430 to provide for the expedited processing of water rights permit amendments to change the diversion point for existing non-saline surface water rights when the applicant begins using desalinated seawater. In 2018, the agency proposed and adopted rules to implement this expedited process.

Texas NetDMR Migration Project

The Enforcement Division’s efforts were instrumental in the agency’s March 2018 transition from the Texas NetDMR (Network Discharge Monitoring Report) system to the EPA’s NetDMR system. This transition was implemented to meet the federal eReporting Rule.

Cody Johnson: New TCOT Spokesperson

The TCEQ’s Take Care of Texas program has tapped rising country music star Cody Johnson to perform on public service announcements that began airing on Texas TV in May 2018.

Johnson, best known for the song “With You I Am,” is an accomplished songwriter with six albums under his belt. A native Texan who grew up in Sebastopol, he donated his time to write and perform the new tune for the PSAs.

Take Care of Texas is a statewide campaign from the TCEQ that provides helpful information on Texas’ successes in environmental protection and encourages all Texans to help keep our air and water clean, conserve water and energy, and reduce waste.

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