Beginning January 6, the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ) is accepting comments on a proposal to revise the agency’s penalty policy. The proposed revisions do not represent a change in current practices, but are intended to bring the penalty policy up-to-date with practices that are already effective.
The more significant proposed changes include incorporating the deferral criteria for administrative penalties, including statutory changes that were made during the 82nd and 83rd legislative sessions, reorganizing the penalty policy to better align it with the penalty calculation worksheet, updating the implementation language, and other edits to improve clarification. A detailed summary of the proposed changes can be viewed at the link below.
The deadline for accepting comments is Feb. 5, 2014. All comments will be summarized and presented to the commissioners for their consideration at a future agenda, tentatively scheduled for March 26.
Email comments can be made at penalty_policy@tceq.texas.gov.
View a summary of the significant changes.
View the revised penalty policy.