Environmental violations in the Lone Star State
Data feature prepared with R Studio and online tools, formatted for further editorship. Access the cleaning and analysis notebooks here.
By Angelica Ruzanova.
Texas, the second-largest state in the U.S., has experienced rapid population growth in recent years, furthering its position as a global energy hub to sustain cities. With energy production playing a significant role in public health and environmental concerns, a key question emerges: how have trends in environmental violations and its responsible entities shifted over the past decade?
Environmental violations in Texas peaked in 2019, with the Port Arthur Refinery receiving the most regulatory notices up to date, according to Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ) data.
The Saudi Aramco-owned facility, one of the nation’s largest fuel and petrochemical processors, racked up 943 notices since 2010, citing issues such as open universal waste containers, delayed hydrocarbon spill cleanups and missing safety signs at waste management areas. Its latest citation in July 2024 involved unauthorized atmospheric emissions.
Another crude oil refinery in Galveston takes second place statewide, with a total of 693 environmental violation notices since 2010. The Galveston Bay Refinery, owned by Marathon Petroleum, was recently cited for failing to conduct sampling for air contaminants at its sulfur recovery unit.
In Harris County, home to the highest number of violations overall (28,179), the Chevron Phillips chemical plant leads with 545 citations since the same time frame, followed by ExxonMobil's Baytown refinery at 389 notices.
In Greater Austin, trends fluctuate. Environmental violations in regional counties also peaked in 2019 with 770 notices, according to TCEQ data, consistent with statewide trends.
Possible factors contributing to the increase include the amendment of the Texas Water Code outlined in the agency’s Biennial Report and intensified enforcement efforts, which resulted in more than $2.7 million allocated for Supplemental Environmental Projects.
Violations declined during the COVID-19 pandemic but spiked again in 2023, with 595 notices issued in the region that year.
Data takeaways
The City of Pflugerville tops Travis County’s environmental violators list with 54 notices, including a January 2019 violation at its water treatment plant for failing to meet cryptosporidium removal standards. The Environmental Protection Agency mandates such requirements to safeguard public drinking water from this microscopic parasite commonly linked to fecal contamination.
The second most cited entity in Travis County is a wastewater treatment plant in Walnut Creek, accounting for 28 notices. According to the TCEQ, the entity failed to properly operate and maintain its facility, being cited for severely rusted and eroded catwalks in the primary treatment area.
Midland, a Texas county halfway between Fort Worth and El Paso, contains the highest number of Category A violations which require automatic enforcement actions, with 131 notices handed out to entities since 1998.
Source, caveats & Methodology
The analysis draws on two data sets from the TCEQ, accessed through the Texas Open Data Portal and linked via investigation numbers unique to each cited entity. These data sets were cross-referenced to gain a comprehensive idea of the different violations as well as who they were attributed to.
The Notices of Violation (NOVs) set includes the regulated entity names and investigation tracking numbers organized by categories of initiation (A, B and C), with records dating back to 2010 and several invalid year entries.
The Violation Citations data set provides detailed accounts of individual violations, covering allegation descriptions and resolutions, with entries stretching back to 1998 and with gaps in earlier years.
