Environmental advocates push feds to investigate Texas’ enforcement of water quality

Downstream from Inland Environmental & Remediation Inc., contaminated water empties from Skull Creek into the Colorado River south of Columbus in 2019. (Credit: Michael Stravato for The Texas Tribune)

The Environmental Protection Agency says an informal investigation is underway after more than two dozen environmental advocacy groups submitted a petition against the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality. The petition alleges that state regulators are not doing enough to protect water quality in Texas, as is federally required.

The environmental groups are asking the federal agency to step in and repair Texas’ “broken system” of issuing permits to control water pollution, saying the state has made it too easy for industries to contaminate its water.