Reporting Spills
Posted: February 19, 2012 Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: kills and spills, public safety, spill report hotline, TCEQ 7 CommentsThe Victoria Advocate reported that on Friday, February 17th, a driver swerved to miss a deer and overturned his truck at 5:30 in the morning. He was trapped for over an hour before being taken to a hospital. The Department of Public Safety is investigating the wreck, but there have been no further reports on clean-up of the oil. This comes just weeks after another spill on Hwy 111 in DeWitt County.
With the huge number of heavy trucks moving through the EFS counties, this kind of accident is not a surprise. It is crucial that spills be reported, and even more crucial that residents follow up to make sure that the problem has been addressed. So here’s a short guide to reporting different kinds of spills in the state of Texas.
***TCEQ (Texas Commission on Environmental Quality) spill hotline is 1-800-832-8224. ***
Texas Dept of Public Safety – agency with responsibilities to secure transportation-related spill incident sites; coordinate with local jurisdictions to ensure state incident notification
Railroad Commission – agency for spills or discharges from the exploration, development, production, storage or pipeline transportation (excluding highway transport) of oil and gas
Texas Parks and Wildlife – agency responsible for protecting fish and wildlife by investigating fish kills and pollution. Contact the Kills and Spills team if you see any violations relating to wildlife.
General Land Office – agency for crude oil spills that enter, or threaten to enter, coastal waters
The TCEQ has to respond with in 12 hours. Make sure you document all call, names, times, and reason for complaint.
That’s only in the Barnett Shale. We need to get that policy for the Eagle Ford but it will take some community involvement to push for it.
Earthworks’ Oil and Gas Accountability Project working with Mayor Calvin Tillman pushed the TCEQ to change that policy after the air quality study and Wilma Subra’s health survey.
Good to know! Thanks for the extra info.
So the TCEQ only has to respond within 12 hours if the accident happens in the Barnett counties? What is their standard for the rest of the state? And why isn’t that standard state-wide?
Yes, it’s only for the Barnett Shale. Earthworks worked with the community of Dish, TX and their former mayor, Calvin Tillman to push for that policy change.
To be clear, this is the 12 hour response for odor events/releases not necessarily accidents. Although there can be overlap and if you are the one experiencing health effects from the emissions, you might consider it an emergency.
Before that policy change, they just got their any old time and consistently after the event was over.
This will be a good organizing issue for EFS residents.
Here is the press release http://responsiblegold.com/PR_DISH_HealthSurveyRelease_TCEQ.cfm
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