Natural Outlook, Spring/Summer 2009

Since 1995, the Voluntary Cleanup Program has issued more than 1,400 certificates of completion for once-polluted properties. Now rehabilitated, these properties help add jobs to their community and revenue to the tax rolls.

Three Texas cities not only make their own compost but they sell it on the commercial market. McAllen, Austin, and Texarkana each has developed its own approach to adding green to their communities.

In less than 15 months, the TCEQ’s AirCheckTexas Drive a Clean Machine program helped retire 18,918 older vehicles, which means an equivalent number of newer, cleaner-burning vehicles are on the road.

The TCEQ has prioritized dry cleaner properties needing cleanup. So far, work has begun at 133 sites around the state.

A year after the Environmental Protection Agency announced a new, tougher ozone standard for all states, Texas has proposed adding seven counties to those designated as nonattainment.

Of the TCEQ’s 388 fleet vehicles, the majority are either a hybrid or use an alternative fuel.